Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo's Counterattack
by The Legendary Dragon Reaper
Summary: One of the biggest issues I have with GT is how they handled Piccolo, most notably what they did with him in the Baby Saga. So thus I ask this: What if Piccolo actually did take part in the struggle to free the populace of Earth from Baby's control? Baby saga only, no Super 17, no Shadow Dragons.
1. Deal with the Devil, Piccolo's Resolve

One by one, the people of Earth have been falling to Baby's horrific influence, and not even the sons of Son Goku were able to escape from his grasp.

Now with Gohan's body and power under his control, Baby gave a malice filled smirk '_Now this is exactly what I've come to expect from the power of a Saiyan. This is the kind of ability and control that I need!' _he cranked his neck to the side to dodge a Special Beam Cannon being shot at him from within the crevise below '_And now I have a prime target worth testing this new power on.'_

Sure enough, beneath him stood none other than Piccolo himself, holding the unconscious abandoned body of Goten over his shoulder as he shot a glare at Baby "You're nothing but a filthy parasite, and you've lived off the bodies of my friends long enough, now come out here and show yourself!"

"The Namekian warrior known as Piccolo, one of the most brilliant fighter this planet and this galaxy has to offer. This body also happens to have a great level of respect for you, and that makes you the perfect candidate for which I can try out the new powers I've acquired. What do you say to that?"

"Fine, but I think you'll find that I'm not going to go down so easily like the rest of your pawns have so far." Piccolo set down Goten, ripped off his weighted cape and turban, and floated upwards to face Baby "I hope you're ready."

"Oh believe me, I am." Baby's body pulsated slightly, unleashing a wave of energy that was powerful enough to nearly blow Piccolo back.

'_This might have been a bad idea, I can't believe possessing Gohan has allowed him to tap into this much power! No calm down Piccolo, you have to focus. Analyze his attack pattern, see if you can find a weakspot. I can't let him get out of here, that much is certain.' _so Piccolo started the battle by firing an Explosive Demon Wave.

Baby simply held out a hand and deflected the blast with ease, as well as dodged and blocked the barrage of attacks that followed, eventually catching Piccolo's fist in his own, creating a powerful shockwave from the resulting collision "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, your power is considerably above the likes of that brat down there, but still below what this body is capable of producing."

"Allow me to fix that." Piccolo's aura spiked considerably, and then he dealt Baby a barrage of punches and kicks that didn't break through his guard, but did send him flying into a nearby plateau and through several more as he continued his onslaught.

Baby dodged and blocked every attack with ease, and when he did go on the offensive he quickly dealt Piccolo a fist to the jaw, a kick to the gut and a brutal barrage of attacks that smashed him square into the ground, then picked him up and smashed him through several plateaus.

Piccolo's aura spiked as he managed to get out of Baby's grasp, and as he rolled out of the way of the next attack he attacked Baby at point blank range with an Explosive Demon Wave right to the face.

When the smoke cleared, Baby revealed himself to be unharmed, blitzed behind Piccolo, grabbed him by the foot and hurled him straight to the ground, causing him to cough up blood. Once he ended his assault, Baby stomped down on Piccolo's back repeatedly before grabbing him by the neck and pulling him into the air "This provided an adequate test of my powers, but you would be of no use to me." he slammed a fist into Piccolo's gut, causing him to cough up blood, before firing a Masenko at him at point blank range, blowing a large chunk of his body apart and sending him clear across the horizon and out of sight '_That should be more than enough to finish off that pest. This is becoming so easy, it's actually rather disappointing. Two Saiyans are already down, as well as one Namekian. Now all I have to do is find the one and only Vegeta, and then I will make his power my own.'_

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Meanwhile, with Piccolo…

Of course, what Baby didn't realize was that Piccolo had survived his attack, albeit barely, having landed in an abandoned wasteland, albeit he was missing one of his arms and both of his legs, and the body parts he did have were fairly charred, so in short, he was barely hanging on now '_No… you won't win… Even if it isn't me… someone will stop you…' _the last thing he saw before he blacked out was a red, white and purple figure appearing before him.

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A few minutes later, on the Sacred World of the Kais…

Old Kai looked up from where he was fishing when he saw Kibito Kai with a certain someone else with him "Well, did you get him?"

"Yes ancestor, I was able to retrieve him." Kibito Kai set Piccolo down on the ground "My healing capabilities should do the trick." so he placed a hand down on Piccolo and let the healing energy flow through him.

Once he was fully healed, Piccolo bolted upright and took a minute to regenerate and regain his awareness "What the- Where am I? What happened?"

"Calm yourself Piccolo, we're on my home planet, the Sacred World of the Kais. I found you and brought you here after your encounter with the creature known as Baby."

"So we're on your world? I don't have a halo, so I guess that means you saved me. But this place is supposed to be sacred, mortals aren't supposed to be here. Aside from Gohan and Goku that is, but they're special cases for a number of reasons."

"I'm well aware of that, but unfortunately Goku is not on Earth and Gohan has already been taken over by the parasite known as Baby."

"I know that all too well, and that's why we brought you here. Goku has to focus on recovering the Black Star Dragon Balls for the time being, or else Earth and all of its people are sure to perish."

"Which means that it's up to me and Vegeta to take this guy out. That's bad, that's very bad you know. I tried fighting Baby and I should be dead right now. For all he knows I am."

"That's part of why you're the perfect one to help take him down." Old Kai pointed out "But you'll have to get a hell of a lot stronger before you can do that. I was going to unlock your sleeping powers like I did for Gohan back during that whole ordeal with Majin Buu, now that I think about it Goku never did follow through on that promise, but there's something you need to do first."

"Which is what exactly?"

"I've heard about your origins from Gohan, even though you fused with Kami again you still couldn't access your ultimate potential and that's because there was a small part of your essence missing since you were born."

"I'm listening."

"You're gonna have to go down to Hell so that you can find that missing piece of you and make it part of you again, and only then can I awaken your full power so you can fight Baby. You understand me?"

"I'll do it, if it means saving Gohan then that's all I need to know."

"That's good, it seems I made the right decision in coming to Earth to find you when I did. If we were to lose you to Baby as well, all would most likely be lost." so Kibito Kai promptly grabbed onto Piccolo by the shoulder, and the two of them disappeared in a flash.

Old Kai watched the two of them go, and then he turned back to his crystal ball, displaying the situation down on Earth '_I didn't expect to be putting our faith in a Namekian as the only hope for the universe, but at least he's not as reckless as those damn Saiyans are.'_

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Piccolo found himself alone in Hell '_Alright Piccolo, just like Goku said. I've gotta find this missing piece of myself, it's the only way I'm going to have a chance of surviving in this upcoming battle.'_

"Hello Piccolo."

As he heard this, Piccolo froze '_That voice… I'd recognize that voice anywhere. Ever since I was created almost 40 years ago, I had heard that voice every single day. Then came the battle with the Saiyans and I sacrificed myself to save Gohan, and then it just stopped.'_

"It's so nice to finally meet you my boy, after all this time. To be honest, I never thought we would actually get the chance to meet."

"So this is what the Elder Kai was talking about. To be honest, this is a day I've been dreaming of but I never thought it was actually going to come." Piccolo slowly turned and faced his opponent "I've heard a lot about you… father."

Sure enough, the Demon King Piccolo stood in front of him.

"So you're the great King Piccolo aren't you?"

"I can see that my reputation precedes me, but please just call me Daimao. After all, it's the name that I would've had those feeble humans call me after I had taken over… and it's also the name I expect them to call you my son." the way he spoke was cold and proud, and it was also slightly intimidating.

'_If this were me the first time I died then I might have been intimidated, but since then I've faced foes that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. _Daimao it is. I have to admit I actually like the name, it's short and to the point and it separates you from the pompous and ignorant fools who create names for themselves. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've seen that."

Now Daimao let out a snicker, which left Piccolo rather unnerved "Of course not my son, though I must say that I'm extremely happy to see that you still choose to wear the colors of the Demon Clan. At least there's a part of you that's still loyal to your tribe, despite your… actions over the past decade or so."

'_Loyal to our tribe? Actions?'_

"Why have you not killed Son Goku yet?" his eyes suddenly narrowed.

'_Okay, now I see why people were so afraid of me back during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. I can even feel the sweat running down my spine.'_

"I was going to, but I had more pressing issues to deal with. _That, and my desire to kill Goku has long since been forgotten by me. _The Earth was attacked by warriors known as Saiyans, and yes I did kill Goku in a sacrificial move to kill one of these Saiyans- Goku's brother in fact- but two more showed up a year later and one of them got the jump on me and sent me here. Tell me something father, what good would there be in letting those fools destroy the Earth if I wasn't able to rule it?"

"...Piccolo my son, explain something to me. I died 37 years ago, and you were born in my dying moments 37 years ago. That's almost four full decades, am I correct?"

"Yes that's right."

"You mean to tell me that during all of that time, you weren't able to defeat that wretched fool even once?! Dammit Piccolo!"

"What the hell was I supposed to do? You want me to sneak up on him, kill his friends and family, and then butcher him like some kind of sadist? You want me to hand the heads of his friends and family on trees for him to see? That's the coward's way out. If I was going to take him out then it would be in a fair fight, one on one between us both."

Daimao said nothing, he just started gritting his teeth.

"Yes I teamed up with Son Goku and yes I fought alongside him and his friends against the Saiyans, if you were smart then you would've done the same thing but clearly you're not. There was no way I was going to let those Saiyans destroy the Earth, whether I was going to rule that world or not. Yes I trained Goku's son, and yes I sacrificed myself to save that kid, but he showed me that I had a choice, a choice to follow my own path and not become a slave to the destiny you tried to force on me. I'm not you father, I never was and I never will be."

"Don't tell me about the coward's way out and then try to defend it to me Piccolo, you took the coward's way out. You're throwing away your heritage and your legacy, and for what? Some meaningless morals? Are you concerned about possibly dying? I _made _you with the sole intention of killing that incompetent ape, and you tell me that you won't do it just because I made you to do it? You're an idiot, a weak fool that lacks any sort of brain."

"There's more to it than that. The Saiyans, if you anger them then their power increases to levels one can only imagine. You made a grave mistake in your approach. You and your _demons _killed several of Goku's friends which only enraged him and turned him bloodthirsty, if you ever truly wanted me to kill Son Goku then I hope you realize that having me repeat the exact same process that you used isn't the answer."

Instead of lashing out again, Daimao let out a chuckle "Fair points Piccolo, very fair points. I must admit, I'm impressed that you've acquired my intelligence and ability to use logic. Your brothers, they never really had either."

"You mean those pathetic excuses for demons that you created? Piano, Cymbal, Drum, Tambourine, all of them were pathetic weaklings and I have to break this to you but they're _not _my brothers."

"Watch your tongue Piccolo, even if you are the _ultimate _demon the fact is that they're still your brothers. Looking back I admit that I made a mistake by not making them strong enough, that's on my. But I will not have you talk about them like they're worthless, don't you understand the importance of loyalty Piccolo?"

"Yes I do, but that doesn't mean that I have to be loyal to you. I learned a long time ago that I don't have to live in your shadow anymore. Father or no father you don't control me, you never have and you never will. You want to talk about making a mistake? Your mistake was giving me an actual brain, because I'm smart enough to see just how foolish your ideals and plans really are."

"Is that so? Well if you're not with me then you're against me. You arrogant weak minded fool, you're going to regret your insolence!"

"So what are you going to do then? Are you going to hit me, make me cry and then pledge my allegiance to you? Come on Daimao, you and I both know that talking isn't how our kind settle things."

"How right you are my son, how right you are." Daimao let out a howl and charged in an attempt to land a right hook across the face.

Piccolo suddenly flickered, revealing himself as an afterimage, and the real one quickly blitzed behind Daimao and thrusted his elbow into Daimao's back.

Daimao fell to the ground and coughed up blood '_Now that's what I expected to see all of my sons to in battle.'_

"Unlike the rest of your sons, I actually know how to fight. I know every trick in your book, not to mention some more that I learned myself. I guess that's the benefit of having my own brain right?"

"Your own brain huh? Well you see Piccolo…" that was when Daimao fired a Ki blast "If it's a fight that you want then it's a fight you're going to get! Good riddance!"

Piccolo dodged the Ki blast with surprising gracefulness "Sorry old man, you missed."

"Did I?" Daimao fired several more Ki blasts as he rose from the ground.

Piccolo dodged the majority of the blasts, causing them to miss by miles "What are you doing? Did you lose your vision when you fell to the ground? Out of 30 shots you barely managed to scrape me with just one, am I supposed to be intimidated by this?"

"Intimidated? Who said anything about intimidated? You keep going on about my attacks missing, but it's you who's missing the point!"

"What-?" Piccolo looked around, only to see the balls surround him '_This is the Hellzone Grenade! No wonder 17 hates this attack.'_

"I've been planning this for a long time Piccolo, and now it's time for this to end. Farewell, my son. **Demon Grenade!"** Daimao activated the final step to his version of the Hellzone Grenade, causing the blasts to all swarm in on Piccolo, covering in a massive explosion that filled the sky.

Piccolo let out a loud ear piercing scream, only to draw from Daimao a cackle of joy.

"See this new generation, they just don't know how things work do they? Defeating the veterans, those who had been there before? It's impossible, completely and truly impossible." he began to walk forward '_If all went well then that means that he's gone and the next Demon King is about to be crowned, and that's enough for us to celebrate the only way demons know how: chaos, fire and anarchy. That's how the Earth should've been under my his rule. For all these years, I had been expecting to one day learn that the Earth was nothing more than ruins where the human race served under the Demon King Piccolo and fought with each other for the scraps. I had imagined a world where they both feared and adored him, mostly the former. But instead the Earth still blossoms, probably in much better shape than it was when I had died. But how could that be? How is it that the son of a malevolent creature like me could not want to rule over the Earthlings? If he was truly my son then he would've taken extreme pleasure in watching the world slowly burn with the flags of the nations being replaced with our colors. What I done wrong then? Had I made a mistake when doing the sacred Demon Transfer technique? Well if this all went to plan then Piccolo will soon be… facing me looking like he's foaming at the mouth.'_

Sure enough, Piccolo stood there once the smoke cleared, looking extremely pissed as if the attack hadn't hit him at all "What was that supposed to do?"

Daimao staggered backwards and fell to his knees '_How… How could he have survived that? _How… what? _I spent years working on the Demon Grenade, how could it have failed so miserably?'_

"You want to know something? For a long time I thought that I had to live in your shadows and become the next Demon King." Piccolo flared his white aura "But that was a very long time ago, and now I'm going to make sure the title of Demon King never returns by eradicating it from existence."

"You…" hearing that simple sentence filled Daimao with blind rage '_Does he truly think he can wipe out the demon clan? No, that can't be it. If anything he must be playing a simple trick on me, trying to get me to lose my cool. _I'd watch what you say if I were you Piccolo, I'm still your father after all. I don't see why you're so angry, so hell bent on destroy me. Tell me, what did I ever do to you? All I wanted was for you to follow in my footsteps, that's all there is to it."

"If I was going to follow in your footsteps then Goku would've killed me, if I was going to follow in your footsteps like I told before then I wouldn't be ruling Earth because I would be dead."

"I don't see how that would be the case, from what you've already shown me you're quite strong, far stronger than I had expected after hearing about everything you've been through."

"Do you have any idea what's happened on Earth since you let yourself get killed by Goku? I know that I told you about the Saiyans, but do you really know about that and everything I've been through since then?"

"All I know is that you betrayed me by not killing Son Goku, but how about you enlighten me on just what's gone on so that I know why you've put off eliminating the man responsible for killing your father." Daimao waved his hand and summoned two chairs "Here go on and sit, just because I've been in Hell doesn't mean that I've forgotten to be a gracious host."

"I think I'll stand thank you. _He has something up his sleeve, I can tell. _Tell me, how much do you already know?"

"Well I don't know much about what's been going on to be honest, but I know enough. I know the main things that Son Goku is still alive, the Earth is free, and you died once at the hands of Saiyan warriors but weren't sent to Hell."

"Well then here's the rest of it. After you _created _me I spent the first three years of my life training until the next World Martial Arts Tournament. There I fought Krillin, one of the ones that your demonic spawns killed, and then Kami. He took possession of some human's body and tried to use the Evil Containment Wave on me, but I deflected it and ended up capturing him instead. Then I fought Goku and I did what you had failed to do, I crippled him and made sure he didn't have a free arm that he could use to defeat me. Somehow though, he beat me by knocking me out of the ring and at that moment I thought I was done for. I thought that now, here we have a man who's facing the reincarnation of the demon who killed his best friend and his teacher, and tried to enslave all of Earth, ,and now he has the demon at his feet. I _knew _that Goku would find a way to just end it, but instead he healed me."

Daimao said nothing, but his fist clenched.

"For so long I hated Goku and wanted nothing more than to defeat him in battle, but I had to train harder than I could ever foresee myself doing. Then I began thinking, why not just devote my time to practicing a move that would kill Goku with ease? Looking back it was foolish of me to think that and I ended up paying the price for it when Goku's Saiyan brother Raditz showed up and trounced both of us like it was nothing. Goku planned to sacrifice himself so that I would be able to kill Raditz, and I can't say that I objected to the idea. After all, it was what I had been waiting for my whole life. But still, as he lay there lifeless it just wasn't what I had imagined it to be like. I found myself unable to hate him for making such a sacrifice. As he lay there dying, he let us know that there were two more Saiyans on their way to Earth and that they would be there in one year. I saw the great potential held within Goku's son and I took to boy to train him in my ways, maybe even use him against Goku later."

"An excellent plan I must admit. Now what, pray tell, became of that plan?"

"Well flash forward about 11 months, the Saiyans come and before I knew it I ended up being killed by one of them to shield the kid. Then I landed in this dimension and met that giant red asshole Yemma, speaking of which when I first showed up there he told me that you were locked up but I don't see any kind of prison."

"He seems to do that often. Is that it Piccolo, is that the story I've been waiting all these years to hear?"

Piccolo's posture tightened up "That's everything you need to know."

'_So it seems that Piccolo doesn't trust me just yet. It's a shame, I actually found his story to be quite interesting. _Speaking of stories Piccolo, you know the story of how Kami and I splitting from each other don't you? The story about the Namekian with no name splitting into two beings, the good side being Kami and the evil side being yours truly?"

"I have all of your memories old man so of course I do, what about them? _Is he going where I think he is with this?'_

"Well Piccolo, I don't know quite how to explain this to you."

'_Oh why not, I'll just humor him and go along with it. Oh am I gonna have a goddamn field day with this.'_

"I've been doing a bit of _research _over the years about what's known as fusion, namely the combination of two lifeforms genetically similar like me and Kami. Over that time, after a little bit of experimentation with the demons I realized that if a Namekian or demon can split itself into two entities then two entities can combine to form a single being that's even more powerful than the two of them combined."

"Let me stop you right there, if you think that I'm going to fuse with you and let you try and dominate me then you've got another thing coming."

"Well I don't necessarily think it, I know it and I know what's going to happen Piccolo. The two of us, we're going to form a new Demon King and continue the bloodline. Piccolo, I'm well aware that I can't beat you in a simple fist fight even after all the, not with the training that you've done and the brilliant mind you possess. But if you combine that with _my _brilliant mind and experience and we'd have the ideal Demon King, we could crush Son Goku like the insect that he is!"

"I already told you, whatever desire I held to kill Son Goku faded over time. At this point killing Goku would be counterproductive, and there's no chance in hell that I'd ever fuse with you of all people."

"No chance huh?" Daimao suddenly punched Piccolo across the face, then smashed his head into that of Piccolo "Oh I know that there's a chance, and I know that you're going to be brought back to Earth by Son Goku and those feeble earthlings. They're going to need your strength for the fight coming up, but once you return to Earth you won't be you anymore. At least not the same you that is."

Piccolo clutched his bleeding head and shot Daimao a feeble smirk "Oh really, and who am I gonna be old man? I'd love to hear this."

"Well Piccolo, you- no, more like we- will be the Demon King."

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Things on Earth were growing worse by the minute.

Still in control of Gohan's body, Baby finally found Vegeta and Bulla driving along a highway, and it only took Vegeta a matter of seconds to notice that something was wrong with Gohan, and he instructed Bulla to go home.

Once Bulla was out of the picture, Vegeta learned that Baby was a parasite of the Tuffle race possessing Gohan's body, with Baby explaining how the Saiyans stole the Tuffles' home planet and claimed it as their own. This forced Tuffle scientists to create a parasitic organism, and send it off into the far reaches of space. Baby, this parasite, possessed Dr. Myuu and forced him to create a body for him.

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Daimao watched as Piccolo stood in silence after the proposition "Nothing to say Piccolo? Then I'm going to make the assumption that you're considering fusing with me. Don't you understand what could come out of us combining our powers? We would be the most feared being that this universe has ever seen!"

'_I highly doubt that.' _Piccolo resisted the urge to point out the crisis with Frieza and his men on Planet Namek, or the current crisis with Baby infecting everyone and everything on Earth for the sake of his revenge.

"I understand how this must feel, I do, but you must understand that it is necessary. The Demon King line will die with you unless we combine our talents Piccolo, imagine all that we can do my son!"

"I couldn't care less about what we can do. What I care about is the here and now, and that's me walking away as my own self and not some puppet like the other demons that you've created."

"You're making a grave mistake boy, and don't be so quick to insult your brothers. After we fuse, you'll have the pleasure of meeting them and calling them your- or should I say our- allies in battle. I will admit that they're not the most intelligent, but they make up for that in loyalty."

Piccolo promptly slided elbow into Daimao's chest "Listen old man, I want you to get this through your skull: I'm not going to let you even come close to fusing with me. I had to fight for a long time to rid your voice from my mind and I'm gonna be damned if I let you back in, you understand me?"

Daimao coughed up blood '_If I remember correctly then all I have to do is beat him to near death and then remind him that death in this realm means him dying for good. After that he'll have no choice but to fuse with me. _Fine Piccolo, this is how we're going to do things then." he lunged and slammed his fist into Piccolo's gut.

Piccolo met the fist with his own counter.

Daimao swept Piccolo's legs and knocked him to the ground, then grabbed Piccolo's leg in an attempt to throw him into a rock plateau.

Piccolo fired an Eye Beam and nearly blew off Daimao's ear.

"You little-" Daimao clutched his ear in pain.

Piccolo jumped at him and buried his fist his gut, then twisted it in order to cause greater pain to him.

Daimao doubled over and desperately gasped for breath.

Piccolo rose both hands above his head "I don't care if you're a Demon King or not, you're making a grave mistake fighting the most powerful Namekian this universe has ever seen and now I want you to understand just how much of a mistake you made. **Masenko!" **he fired off a quick Masenko.

"No chance Piccolo!" Daimao crossed his arms in an attempt to block it but a second too late, leaving him to be knocked through a massive wall of rock.

'_That wasn't enough to defeat him, he's too durable for something like that. _Come on Demon King, show me what you've got. I want to be able to walk away from this fight knowing that I fought a worthy opponent, not one that was nothing but talk. So come on already, let me see why Goku and his friends were oh so afraid of the great Demon King Piccolo."

Daimao promptly fired a Mouth Energy Wave.

Piccolo dodged it, as expected.

Daimao dealt a powerful uppercut to Piccolo's jaw with maximum precision.

Putting the pain aside for the time being, Piccolo threw his shoulders into Daimao's body in a chest bump sort of fashion, which then escalated into the two of them exchanging punches back and forth, trading curses, blood splattering, and even a flip or two along the way.

"You sure that you wouldn't rather just give in Piccolo?" Daimao grabbed Piccolo's arm and slammed his elbow down on it, nearly breaking it and causing Piccolo to recoil "I mean you're clearly wounded, and they do say that fusion will help bring you to full strength, if I were you then I would be practically begging to just fuse right now to spare me even more pain and suffering. You must understand this, I know how you work."

"Well then that would make you nothing but a coward, all you would be doing is running away from a battle. Speaking of running, I have a feeling you'll have the urge to do exactly that in three…" he grabbed Daimao by the arm and held it firmly "Two…" he punched Daimao in the stomach "One." he threw Daimao into the air and fired a Mouth Energy Wave infused with the Dragonfire of Porunga, hitting Daimao dead center in the chest, resulting in an explosion.

Daimao was sent flying further from the blast, a bit further than intended.

Piccolo was standing on top of a plateau within seconds, getting a perfect look of the result of the blast.

Daimao was coughing furiously, but then began to slowly laugh as he rose from the ground, the top of his uniform almost completely destroyed "I must admit Piccolo, you've fought very well. But I believe that there's one more trick from me that you have yet to see, and chances are that you forget that I could even pull this off! Yes it's my ultimate trump card, the move that will put you out of commission. Now you will taste the true power of the Demon King!" a blinding pure white aura began surrounding him and his size began to double.

'_This transformation…'_

Daimao was transforming into a Great Namekian.

'_Dammit, how could I have forgotten that he would be able to do this? I should've realized it the second he mentioned his ultimate trump card!'_

Daimao barked out a deep menacing laugh "Now do you see my dear Piccolo? I am the Demon King, and I _always _get my way! Now you're going to feel my wrath as I pummel you into near death before I absorb you into my being!"

'_Dammit, what can I do? If he finishes that transformation then the entire magnitude of this fight is gonna change and- Wait a second, that's it!' _he slammed two fingers to his forehead and began packing as much Ki into them as he could '_It's times like this when I'm so glad I spent all those years honing and adjusting this technique so I don't need 5 minutes to charge it, or as long as it takes to turn into that Great Namekian form because if it did then I'd either be panicking or a bloody corpse at this point. I hope this works… No, I __**know **__this will work. It hit Raditz while he was squirming in Goku's grip and that was more than 10 years ago, this should be easy. _**Special Beam Cannon!" **he fired a Special Beam Cannon, leaving a massive hole in the center of Daimao's chest.

Daimao abruptly stopped transforming and returned to his normal form, only now with a gaping hole in his chest spewing blood out like a volcano.

"You mentioned your ultimate trump card and it was a technique that I knew, meaning that I understood its strengths and weaknesses. If there's one thing I've learned with that technique or anything close to it then it's that hitting you as you transformed will normally interfere with it. I never even mentioned _my _ultimate trump card and I end up stopping your transformation, funny how that works right? The first rule of fighting, if you know that your opponent knows how your technique works then you shouldn't make it so obvious to your opponents. _Speaking of techniques working, that's ⅔ times the Special Beam Cannon worked in a battle. I mean first there's the thing with Raditz, then I used it in that fight with Gohan, and now here. Still though, the only reason it worked this time was because he was in the middle of transforming and wasn't able to stop it. It's pretty obvious that this move is a liability in one on one fights.'_

Daimao finished shrinking back to his normal form, the gigantic hole in his chest not even close to being healed yet, and began crawling while leaving a trail of blood behind from the wound in his chest "Dammit Piccolo… all I wanted was to recreate the Demon King, and you come in the way of this. Why?"

"Because I understand why the Supreme Kais wanted me to come here, they wanted to see if I had ever truly moved on from my past life and forged a new path for myself. King Kai on the other hand, he never was fully convinced, though that's probably because I screwed him over once, and he decided to send me down here as a test. He and the Supreme Kais wanted to see just what the difference was between the two of us. The difference between us is actually pretty simple. You want the power to be the Demon King, I want the power because I know that I'm going to need it. So here's what I'm thinking, I say we do this fusion but only if you agree that I stay the host entity."

'_Finally, he sees things the way I see them! At long last, I've finally_ _found my key to get back into the realm of the living! _Yes Piccolo, I'm so glad that you've at last come to your senses after all of this."

Piccolo remained stoic and gave a simple nod "Yes, it's become quite clear that the Elder Kai made the right choice in having us meet. Together we'll become a very powerful warrior, one that will be known throughout the entire universe."

"Excellent, I can't tell you how thrilled I am that you've finally realized how much this fusion will benefit both of us. I knew there was an actual brain in that head of yours, even if it took some time to comprehend how important and necessary this move is."

"Yes and before we do this there's one thing that I think you should know, for the rest of time you're going to have to witness your worst nightmare in the form of a Demon King fighting to protect the Earth and more importantly fighting alongside Son Goku." he received a look of utter contempt and hatred "Yeah it's shocking I know, it's okay to be speechless because I would be too. After years of you trying to manipulate me into killing Goku and taking over the Earth, I just brilliantly outsmarted you and it feels absolutely amazing. This was a necessary move Daimao and I'm sure it must make your blood boil to know that you'll be fighting to protect the Earth instead of rule it. You're probably asking why, after telling you for so long that I wasn't going to fuse, that I'm making the decision to go through with this. My answer is simple, Earth is full of both good and bad people, sure most of them are fools but the fact is that it's still a planet that's worth protecting. Besides, it's not like I want to end up back here if you catch my drift."

Daimao let out a snarl and desperately tried to heabutt him.

Piccolo clamped a hand over Daimao's mouth in order to shut him up "Take your defeat like a man Daimao, you were a worthy opponent and on another note it was good to meet you. You're as much of a self absorbed, insignificant moron that I thought you would be and now I get to punish you for trying to control me."

"You'll never… get away… with this! I'll find ways to make you suffer Piccolo, I promise you this! I won't go through with this!"

"That's enough out of you, you've lost this battle and it's only right that you take defeat the way that a true king would. I remember all of those lessons you provided for me through transferring your memories, everything about the honor of royalty and being a man, and now it's time for you to take your defeat like one. Now don't worry, this isn't going to take very long." they were then covered by a blinding light '_It's definitely working, I can feel his Ki signature draining from his body and fast and now all of the injuries that I've sustained in this fight seem to be fading away like they were never there.'_

Daimao's body quickly began fading away.

'_That's it, go on and disappear forever. There's no way I'm letting even a single trace of you survive this.'_

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Now fully aware of who and what Baby was, Vegeta fought and tried to stop him, and he had the upper hand, but then Goten showed up on the battlefield, due to him still being under the control of Baby.

With both of their powers combined, Gohan and Goten proved to be too much for Vegeta, at least in his Super Saiyan form, forcing him to advance to Super Saiyan 2, but this proved to be exactly what Baby wanted, and he quickly went out of Gohan's body and into Vegeta's instead.

With Vegeta's power now under his control, Baby continued making his plans to turn the rest of the people of Earth into Tuffles, then kill Goku, and then to move onto the universe itself.

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Piccolo finished the fusion with Daimao, and stared down at his hands as he attempted to grasp his newfound power '_This is…'_

"I take it this portion of your training was a success?"

Piccolo looked back and saw Kibito Kai standing behind him "So how long were you waiting there exactly?"

"Just long enough to make sure that everything went as it was supposed to." Kibito Kai intently studied Piccolo for a moment "You seem a bit taller now, and your eyes don't hold any of the same hate that we had expected."

"Oh please, as if I'm enough of a pushover that I'd let that old fool take over my body? You know, like your ancestor said I actually did find myself in there. and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of how it went."

"I'm surprised that you actually agreed to fuse with him, after all I was led to believe you despise everything he once stood for."

"I don't know if I would go that far."

"Regardless it's truly remarkable, so how do you feel?"

"Pretty good to be honest, this new power is amazing. I figured I'd grow stronger but not to this extent."

"Well regardless, this was a rousing success, but we still have much more work to do. As much as your power has increased, it's still nowhere near enough for you to defeat Baby now that he's inside Vegeta's body."

"I anticipated as much, so what else do I have to do?"

"It's not what you have to do, it's what my ancestor is going to do for you."

"...I think I know where this is going. You mean for the Elder Kai to awaken my potential in that ritual that he used for Gohan when fought Buu right?"

"Precisely."

"I just have one more question. When do we start?"

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By this point, Goku, Pan and Trunks had reached the ice planet known as Polaris, and had successfully retrieved the last of the Black Star Dragon Balls, and with their mission complete, they decided to head back to Earth, unaware that Baby was waiting for them, with an army growing by the minute.

But at the same time, there was a small light of hope growing brighter by the hour.

**A/N:**

**It's like I said in the summary, the biggest issue I have with GT is how they handle the non Saiyan characters. That is to say, they don't. The exception to this statement is Piccolo, and while his death scene is one hell of a tearjerker, that's really the only significant contribution he makes aside from him dying is in the Super 17 saga, and I'm just throwing it out there now that I have no intention of covering that arc in this story. Seriously though, Piccolo showed up once, got blasted away by Baby, and then he showed up at the end only to die again. Not in this fic.**

**This chapter was meant to be a starter to the overall arc of this fic, as in Piccolo planning and preparing his counterattack by powering him up enough to make a difference, and next chapter will be about him recruiting allies.**


	2. Recruit Reinforcements, Pan's Ascension

**Dragonballreader: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you like this story so much. I'm not a huge fan of GT myself, but I wouldn't say that I hate it, even with all of its significant flaws. I doubt I can really do anything with the human Z fighters in this story, but Piccolo is salvagable at least, so I'll do what I can with him.

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The ritual had come and gone.

Old Kai pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off "Well that's done, and about an hour faster than I was expecting. Looks like someone has been focusing."

"I meditate on a daily basis, so focus is pretty much my fortee." Piccolo noted flatly "So how does this work, how do I awaken this latent potential you've unlocked?"

"Well it shouldn't be too different from when Goku and the others become one of those Super Saiyans, why don't you give that a shot and believe in yourself as you do."

"I'm no Saiyan, but believing in myself… I guess there's only one way to find out. You may want to take a big step backwards."

"Finally, someone who has the decency to let me step back instead of blowing up right in front of me!" Old Kai promptly took a huge step backwards "Alright go ahead, let er rip!"

Gritting his teeth as he got into a stance, Piccolo let out a furious roar and shockwave, the sheer force shaking the entire planet. When everything died down, Piccolo took a moment to take in the changes, his body having bulked up slightly while crackling with white electricity "This power feels incredible…"

"This feels amazing!" Kibito Kai was left in awe by what he was seeing "The power you have now is beyond what even Gohan showed when his potential was awakened!"

"You're giving me too much credit, and him not enough. If Gohan were to reawaken that form at the level he's at right now, I seriously doub if my new power would be enough for me to defeat him. But we don't have time for small talk right now, I haven't been up here for very long and that's been enough for that parasite to take over Vegeta's body."

"And most of Earth too for that matter." Old Kai pointed out "From the looks of it most of your friends have already fallen to him, like that Bulma woman and her family."

"Dammit, I was afraid of that."

"But on the plus side, it would seem that the good part of Majin Buu from that whole ordeal is still unaffected, and so is that buffoon with the dog."

"Buu can take care of himself fairly well against the likes of Gohan and Goten, are there any others?"

"Let me take a look." Old Kai sat down in front of his crystal ball "Yep, from the looks of it there's one down there training up in the northern mountains area."

"That narrows it down pretty well." note the sarcasm in his tone "Who's down there?"

"Looks like the boy that Buu was reincarnated into, he's fighting off a bunch of Baby's henchmen down there as we speak."

"You mean Uub. Good thing, if Baby had gotten his hands on him then we'd be in even more trouble."

"We'd best hurry." Kibito Kai told him "The sooner we get you back to Earth, the more allies we can recruit. Come Piccolo, I can bring you back to Earth so we can get to work."

"I appreciate the effort, but I think it's for the best if you don't get involved for now. We can't have you getting infected by Baby as well. Besides, thanks to my so called father I found a way of my own to get back to Earth." Piccolo gave them a nod of respect, and then he disappeared in a flash.

"He learned Instanteous Movement? Perhaps we underestimated just what he was capable of up until now."

"Maybe, but it doesn't change anything." Old Kai pointed out "He's the only hope the Earth has until Goku and the others get back."

"I know Ancestor, I know. _Good luck Piccolo, we're all counting on you.'_

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It only took a matter of seconds for Piccolo to make his way back to Earth in a large mountain region, quickly lowering himself to the ground '_I can't fly anymore than necessary, Baby will scope me out in a matter of seconds. For the time being, it's for the best if none of the others know that I'm still alive. Looks like Uub probably has the same idea for now, I can't sense him anywhere around here.' _he looked down at the bottom of a cliffside, and he found a rather large village sitting down below '_Huh, I knew his village was poor, but the way Goku made it sound, I thought it was small too. This doesn't help, with so much ground to cover in this area he could by anywhere, and that's assuming he even is here.' _his attention was quickly grabbed by an explosion in the distance '_But that does look like a good place to start.' _and so he quickly flew off towards the scene.

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By this point, Goku and the others had returned to Earth and handed the Black Star Dragon Balls over to Dende and Mr Popo, unaware that both of them were already under Baby's control like everyone else in the world.

From there, the group split up, with Goku and Pan returning to Mount Paozu, quickly noticing how strange Chich and Videl were acting, but it was only after they burst into the building and attacked both of them that they realized that something was very wrong.

Once Pan had been knocked unconscious, Goku wasted no time in fending off the combined attacks of both Gohan and Goten, but as he was about to finish them, Mr Satan and Buu showed up on the scene and informed him that Baby had taken control of everyone on Earth, having laid eggs inside of all of them, turning them into Tuffles.

To make matters even worse, this was when Baby himself showed up on the scene, still in control of Vegeta's body, which promptly Buu to swallow Pan and Mr Satan into his body and then take off, leaving Goku to fend for himself, and not long after, Trunks and Bulla arrived on the scene, both of them having been infected by Baby as well.

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Uub was fending off a weak barrage of Ki blasts from various infected villagers, his mind racing despite being able to do so with ease '_Not only is everyone acting so strange, but their power has increased far beyond normal human limitations. _Everyone please stop this, I don't want to hurt any of you!"

"Shut up brat, for the glory of Lord Baby you either become one of us or die!" the villagers kept on attacking him.

Uub deflected each blast being fired at him with ease, then blitzed forward and knocked out all of the villagers, about 100 or so, with one hit each, knocking them out cold in a matter of seconds "I didn't want to hurt them."

"You're doing what you can based on the circumstances." that was when Piccolo dropped down in front of him "So you're Uub aren't you?"

"I am, but I don't think we've ever met before."

"That energy is a dead giveaway, even if we've never met in person I could sense you training with Goku over the past few years."

"He did mention his friends and family a lot of the time. You wouldn't happen to be Piccolo, would you? Goku said that you were strong, but your power is so much more than I was expecting from you."

"I've gone through some changes over the past few days, mainly because of everything that's been happening throughout the planet." Piccolo glanced over to see a large number of villagers charging towards them armed with weapons "So who are they?"

"People from my village, whatever is going on has infected them too. Whatever it is, I'm trying to subdue them without hurting them. If you want to help, then please just knock them out with as little force as possible."

"Duly noted." so the two of them promptly charged at the army of infected villagers, quickly knocking all of them out either with swift punches to the gut, or with attacks to certain pressure points, until there was only one left.

The man looked up at Piccolo with eyes full of hatred and malice, and held up a hand directly towards Piccolo's chest "You can't dodge it from this close, there's no way in hell you're fast enough!"

"Yeah, about that…" Piccolo just took the Ki blast without so much as a scratch "It's really a matter of whether or not I have to. I'm going to give you one warning, leave now if you value your life."

"You little… Lord Baby will make you pay for this!" and so he left, leaving the rest of the infected villagers behind.

"I take it that one was the first who actually left."

"Whatever it is that makes them so devoted to this Baby character, they're definitely dedicated enough to die for him." Uub noted grimly "And even for those who do run, they keep coming back to come after those who aren't possessed like them. I don't suppose you know what's happening to them?"

"It's not good, that much is obvious. The people of the Earth are being possessed by some sort of parasite called Baby, the only thing I really know about him is that he hates Saiyans with a burning passion."

"What about the rest of Goku's friends and family?"

"They haven't gotten out very lucky either, Gohan and Goten were the first ones to be taken over and now Baby is using Vegeta as a host, and even together I doubt we'd even stand a chance of taking him down."

"I have been sensing an enormous and sinister power, so I'm guessing that's him. Is he really as strong as you claim?"

"I fought him when he was possessing Gohan, and now he's at least 10 times stronger than he was before."

"But at the same time, you said you're far stronger too, although I can't tell as to how much power you're holding back."

"Why do you seem so interested in that?"

"I know it might seem strange that I show up like this out of nowhere, but right now I need to see for certain just how strong you are. I need a good grip on your power if we're going to have any chance of surviving against Baby, let alone defeating him. We need to work together if we're going to make that happen, so in order to do that I need to see what you've got." and so he charged at Uub at full speed.

"If you're so insistent, then I'll oblige you." Uub leapt into the air and dodged Piccolo's initial attack, as well as the ones that followed, and then he went on the offensive, leading to the two of them trading even blows, but Uub easily weaved his way around Piccolo's attacks and slammed a fist into his gut, then followed up with a kick to the head that sent him flying.

Piccolo quickly stopped himself in mid air "Looks like you're even stronger than I was expecting from you, you really do know how to handle yourself in a fight."

"Just because my training with Goku is over doesn't mean I've been taking it easy, but your power is amazing too." so the two of them began clashing throughout the skies, leading to the two of them continuing to trade even bows, which ended when Uub dealt Piccolo a swift and powerful fist to the gut, then followed up with a barrage of punches to the gut, and then charged in for the finisher.

With his aura surging white and his muscles bulging, Piccolo caught Uub's hand, then held out a hand of his own and hit Uub at nearly point blank range with an Explosive Demon Wave, the force sending him flying backwards and crashing to the ground in a heap.

Uub pulled himself to his feet and spat out some blood "I knew you were hiding a lot of your power, but to think you were just toying with me."

"I like to think of it as gauging your power, but to think I would have to use this power shows how strong you really are. Looks like Goku wasn't that bad of a teacher after all. _Good thing this kid isn't like he was in his past life, otherwise we'd probably be in a lot of trouble. _As strong as you are right now, I can tell I was right when I said it wouldn't be enough to stop Baby. All we can do for now is go into hiding and wait until Goku and the others get back to Earth." but then his head snapped in a certain direction "That power… that's Goku, no doubt about it, and from what I can tell he's fighting against Baby and the others."

"And I hate to say it, but I think he's losing. We have to go help him."

"I just hope we're able to make it in time." so the two of them blitzed away with Piccolo's Instananeous Movement.

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Goku found himself at a disadvantage against Baby Vegeta's overwhelming power, forcing him to go Super Saiyan 3, but quickly found that with his small childlike body, he wasn't able to control it properly, leaving him to be brutally pummeled at Baby's mercy, or lack thereof in this case.

That was when Gohan and the others all transferred all of their energy into Baby, causing him to take on a new form that led to him leaving Goku on the ground in heap with a single blow. He then proceeded to gather energy from all of the people on Earth under his control, and form an attack similar to Goku's Spirit Bomb, known as the Revenge Death Ball, and he hurled it straight at Goku, apparently killing him in the blast.

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"Huh?" Buu touched down in a snow covered mountain area and looked over to see the explosion in the distance left behind by Baby's Revenge Death Ball "Goku… gone?"

"_Buu what's going on out there? It felt like the planet was falling apart!'_

"Boom! That's what Buu heard, boom, and then poof! Buu can't feel Goku anymore! Buu thinks that Goku is gone."

"_What, you mean Goku's dead?! But that can't be!"_

"Satan hold on, Buu spit you and Miss Pan out." so Buu promptly spat both of them out of his body.

"Yes! Fresh air and sunshine, I feel as free as a bird!" but Mr Satan's joy over his freedom was quickly cut short when he noticed Pan kneeling on the ground and not moving "Wait a second, what the heck is Pan doing down there? Is she hurt?" and then the laws of physics caught up with him, leaving him to fall to the ground with a thud.

Pan was on her knees, tears streaming down her face over Goku's death "Grandpa, why… Why did you die? I need you… We can't do this without you…"

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Piccolo and Uub blitzed onto the scene at Mount Paozu, only to find that the only thing there was a massive crater "Baby and the others have left, and I can't sense Goku anywhere… We were too late."

"Goku… no…" Uub fell to his knees and slammed a fist into the ground, only to stop when he noticed the sky go black and a massive red dragon appear above them "Is that… a dragon?"

"That's the Eternal Dragon that's summoned by the Black Star Dragon Balls. Dammit, that must mean Baby is using them."

"You mean Shenron… Goku told me stories about it… It's majestic…"

"Goku is gone now, we can't do anything about that. Baby has used the Black Star Dragon Balls, which makes the situation that much more dire. We have to find Pan and the others, so let's get moving."

"R-Right." so Uub picked himself up off the ground, and the two of them blitzed away from the scene in a flash.

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True to Piccolo's fears, Baby had been given the Black Star Dragon Balls by Dende, and he used them to restore Planet Plant, the homeworld of the Tuffles, in Earth's orbit, and now that a wish had been made, the Black Star Dragon Balls were left to scatter throughout the galaxy all over again.

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Pan could only look on in horror as she watched the Black Star Dragon Balls disappear across the galaxy "No… we just got those Dragon Balls back to Earth, and now this? I can't believe we did all of that work for nothing… Not only is everyone I love gone or trying to kill me, but now my home planet is going to explode in a year…" she fell back on the snowy ground beneath her, tears streaming down her face "I'm sorry… I'm not strong enough… I can't do it… I don't have what it takes… We can't do this without Grandpa…"

"Like it or not, we can't rely on Goku to save the day this time." a voice caused her head to snap up.

'_That voice…' _Pan looked up and her eyes nearly bulged out of her head "P-Piccolo?"

Sure enough, Piccolo and Uub had materialized onto the scene, and the former knelt down in front of Pan and helped her to her feet before pulling her into a gentle hug "I'm sorry I couldn't be there sooner."

"Piccolo… why?" Pan's tears kept flowing as she leaned into his embrace "Why did Baby do this? We never did anything to him or his people, we never hurt him."

"The Saiyans who hurt his people are long gone, he can't accept that so he's taking out his anger on whoever he wants. There's only one way to get back the people he's taken, we have to get stronger and stop him ourselves."

"Piccolo… I'm not strong enough…"

"Maybe not yet, but we're going to find a way. You can help us, but there's something I need you to do. I'm going to train you like I did your father, so that you can help us fight Baby and save the Earth. Are you willing to do that?"

"I…" Pan pulled herself to her feet and wiped away her tears "I'll do it, to save Mama and Papa and all of them. Where do we start?"

"I know just the place, so let's get started."

"Right." Pan looked over at Mr Satan and the others, and gave a wave and a small smile "I'll see you guys soon, okay?" and so they disappeared.

Mr Satan looked on with a smile full of pride '_Thank you Green Man, for giving my Pan the push that she needs. Pan, I know you'll do us proud.'_

Buu on the other hand, he was more focused on Uub '_This boy… Buu thinks Buu seen this boy before.'_

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Now that the Tuffle planet had been restored, Baby had Bulma create a massive ship to carry himself and his Tuffle slaves to the newly restored homeworld, fully intent on rebuilding the Tuffle civilization, and then spreading his infection to the rest of the universe.

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Meanwhile, in a very familiar wasteland…

The rain was pouring down from the skies above.

Pan charged at Piccolo at full speed, her white aura flaring higher and higher with every second that passed '_This is insane, I can't even see his attacks coming!'_

"Don't even think about letting down your guard, if you can't even see my attacks coming then how can you hope to avoid them, let alone do any damage?" Piccolo wasted no time in dodging, weaving and parrying around every punch and kick being thrown at him, and he was quick to take action and kick Pan's legs out from under her, then dealt her a brutal kick to the face that sent her crashing to the ground.

Pan pulled herself back to her feet and wiped the blood from her lip '_This is crazy, Papa always said that Mr Piccolo was strong, but it's like he's some kind of monster!'_

"So that's where your power and skill are at right now. I'll be honest with you, your father paid me a visit a few days after you left for space with Goku."

"And what exactly did he say?"

"First he said that when you got back with the Black Star Dragon Balls, he was going to ground you for a year, and after that he asked for what I thought about your potential. You've handled yourself well up until now, but you still have a lot of power that you haven't even come close to tapping into. Before I tried to confront Baby myself, since I suspected how it may turn out, I went to get some Senzu Beans from Korin, and now I'm going to use them to whip you into best shape that I can for the fight to come." he held up the bag in question "You should be glad I got these when I did kid, from here on out we're going to be kicking things up a notch."

"Papa always told me that I should never expect anything less from you. I'm ready to do what I have to Piccolo, if we're gonna save everyone from Baby then I've gotta get way stronger than I've ever been before." Pan's aura flared once more, and with a roar she burst forward and launched a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Piccolo dodged and weaved his way around Pan's attacks with ease, not even taking so much as a single scratch, and eventually he just slugged Pan clear in the gut, sending her tumbling backwards a great distance "In case you forgot, you're not the only one who had to get stronger in order to win this fight."

"I know…" Pan staggered back to her feet and spat out some blood "But I'm not giving up, not by a long shot."

"You're eager, I'll be sure to put that to work soon enough."

"That's what I'm counting on."

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Of course, what none of them realized was that Goku had survived Baby's Revenge Death Ball, but just barely, having been saved by Kibito Kai at the last second and taken to the Sacred World of the Kais.

Since Goku was nowhere near powerful enough to take on Baby in his current state, Old Kai decided to train Goku in order to achieve the power necessary to defeat Baby.

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The rain continued pouring down from the skies above.

Pan was effortlessly sent crashing to the ground with a loud thud, but she wasted no time in pulling herself back to her feet and readying herself for another round "I'm not done… not by a long shot… I have to get stronger… so much stronger… I have to save my friends… my family… I'm not giving up…"

Piccolo studied the look in her eyes intently for a moment, but then he just shook his head in what looked like disapproval "All I see is you psyching yourself up, not to mention making yourself far too overeager for your own good."

"What?"

"Pan, if you just tell yourself that you have to win then that isn't training, it's pointless. You have to be willing to face the reality of the situation and do the real work involved with it, if you can't into that power that you claim to need so desperately, then all of the motivation in the universe won't be anywhere near enough for you to save your family."

Pan's expression fell to one of horror.

"Having something that you want to protect and fight for can make you stronger, that much is true, but when your emotions dominate your reason and cloud your judgement they can become far more of a hindrance than a help. You want your emotions to complement your strength rather than just compensate for it, if you're too desperate to win and if love makes you afraid then you won't be able to assess the situation from a logical standpoint, which will cause you to misjudge the abilities of your opponent and that will cause you to lose."

"So… So that's it then… that's why I've been so weak up until now…" furious with her own lack of clarity and understanding, Pan let out a roar of pure rage as her aura flared wildly.

"There's no such thing as a fight that you can't lose, if we lose this fight then that means the entire universe will become enslaved by Baby, not just this world. That is a fact that you have to accept and come to terms with, and then and only then will you be able to surpass your current limitations."

"I know, but I'm not giving up."

"You can do this Pan, we all have faith that you're going to overcome these obstacles, and perhaps in time you may become the strongest among us."

"Piccolo… thank you. I promise I won't let you down."

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By this point, Goku's training had begun, although he was stuck with grinding coffee beaens, which he believed was because Old Kai was too lazy to do it himself, but at the same time he noticed his tail bone beginning to itch, which earned a grin from Old Kai as a result.

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The rain overhead was now being accompanied by a thunderous roar across the skies that drowned out any other nises.

Pan floated overhead a short distance away from Piccolo, her milky white aura panting wildly despite her panting heavily '_This is way more intense than I was expecting, but if Papa was able to take it, then so can I.'_

"I think it's safe to say I've warmed you up enough already." Piccolo wasted no time in removing his weighted cape and turban "Now come at me with everything you've got, if you're not giving it your all then you won't have a chance in hell of becoming a Super Saiyan."

"I know." with a quick roar, Pan's white aura began flaring even higher.

"You have a great amount of potential Pan, that much we're all aware of, but the problem is that you have another glaring weakness that you inherited from your father, and unless you can overcome it you won't last long against the likes of Baby, whether you're a Super Saiyan or not, and if you do lose then don't expect the rest of the universe to last much longer."

"What weakness are you talking about?"

"Don't think I'm gonna give it away so easily, I'm gonna show it to you."

"Leave it to you to make things harder." and so the two fo them charged at each other, colliding with each other in an explosive fashion, trading even blows with neither of them getting any leeway over the other, at least not until Pan dealt Piccolo a sharp kick to the face, sending him flying backwards a short distance.

Piccolo rebounded within a matter of seconds, then blitzed behind Pan and aimed a knee at the back of her head.

Pan blocked the knee and aimed a kick at Piccolo's head.

Piccolo leapt over the attack and aimed a Ki beam from two fingers, creating a massive fissure in the ground.

'_Woah… that's some technique… He just carved a trench through the planet!'_

"Oh trust me, that's just the tip of the iceber." Piccolo promptly used his extending arms in order to catch Pan in a chokehold that she couldn't get out of "What's the matter Pan? Come on, you can't seriously tell me that's all you got. You can't blame me when you black out."

"I'... I'm not giving up… Not yet!" Pan tried to force herself free, but quickly found her vision growing blurry "Piccolo… I don't get it… how did you get so strong?"

"I had some help from the Supreme Kai, but it takes a lot more than that. Do you really think that while you and the rest of the Saiyans travel across the universe in search of Dragon Balls or a good fight, the rest of us just sit around doing nothing?" Piccolo quickly tightened his grip, which finally caused Pan to lose consciousness, but then he quickly revived her with a Ki blast to the chest "Alright Pan, it's over now. You're strong for your age, you have a lot of room to grow, we all know this for a fact, but now I'm starting to think you lack the heart of a true warrior. But on the other hand, if there's a chance to win then you have to be able to close the deal. This is something that you inherited from your father, and I'm hoping to deal with it before it gets out of hand. Power usually leads to one thing, and that's arrogance, which I think it's safe to say you've experienced first hand time and again during your time with Goku and Trunks searching for the Black Star Dragon Balls."

"Yeah… I noticed that a lot, but I'm not really different in that regard."

"People like them were born with that kind of power, but at the same time they enjoyed it far more than they should, so instead of using their strength to win their arrogance left them open to being defeated by people like Goku and the others. If you let yourself succumb to that then you're going to lose, no matter how much power you may have at your disposal."

"Piccolo…"

"You have to be a true warrior, when you face your opponent you have to fight with everything you've got."

"...Alright Piccolo, I think I get what you're saying. I'm not going to let you down, not like I did all those times before." Pan let out a roar as her aura flared even higher, and it even began slowly flickering gold, as did her hair, the force of her power causing her bandana to fly clean off (thank god for that, I hated that thing).

"That's not what I want to see from you Pan, and you know that damn well. I want you to show me the power that your father, your uncle and your grandfather tapped into with years of blood, sweat and tears. I want you to show me you have what it takes to be a true warrior! SHOW ME NOW!"

Pan let out a primal roar that was capable of drowning out even the thunder raging in the skies above them, her golden colored aura suddenly surging into life in such a manner that was capable of blowing away the storm clouds and revealing the bright blue sky. When the golden light subsided, it revealed Pan in the same location, only now her hair was a brilliant shade of gold, her eyes teal, indicating that she had finally ascended into her Super Saiyan form "So how about it Piccolo, do you like what you see?"

"It's about time, now we can get somewhere."

"Glad to see youre satisfied because I should warn you, I'm not going to hold back against you any longer. I'm coming at you with everything I've got, so you'd better prepare yourself."

"I would be insulted if you didn't." Piccolo wasted no time in creating at least a dozen clones of himself.

"Cloning huh, I didn't know you had that ability."

"It's one of those things I don't get to use very often." and so all of the Piccolo clones charged forward.

Pan wasted no time in taking out all of the clones with a single hit, dodging and deflecting every attack being thrown at her, and when she finally found the real one she dealt him a knife hand attack that blew his arm clean off, much to her horror "Oh my god! Piccolo I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"Don't be sorry, that's exactly what I was looking for." Piccolo promptly dispersed all of his clones, but chose not to regenerate his arm "If you can fight like this against Baby, maybe we do have a chance of making it out of this with our free will and lives after all."

"Piccolo… thank you." and yet she received a surprise Ki blast to the back that knocked her out of her Super Saiyan form "What the heck was that for?!"

"I wanted to see if you could close the deal, but from the looks of it I can see we still have some work to do."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"It's the same thing that happened when your father fought Buu, when he had his power amplified by the Elder Kai he basically got drunk on his power and let down his guard, which allowed Buu to absorb him. That sort of thing wasn't entirely his fault, Goku often made that mistake plenty of times, but you need to make sure that you don't forget to stay focused and drop any arrogance you may have, and be sure to keep your guard up until the enemy is defeated."

"Right Piccolo, I think I understand."

"Good, now let's go again."

"I'm ready when you are."

"Good, now then…"

"Okay, Papa said this was going to come."

"DODGE!"

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Nightfall came.

Piccolo and Pan, the former now clad in a crimson red replica of Piccolo's gi, returned to the snow covered mountain area, where they found Mr Satan and the others huddled in a cave "It's done, I pushed her past her limits."

"Alright!" Mr Satan wasted no time in glomping Pan in a comical fashion, only for him to get pried off by "Uh… sorry."

"Thanks Buu, it feels good to breathe." Pan let out a sigh and started stretching a little bit "You know I really do have to thank you Piccolo, I think training with you is exactly what I needed to push me to where I need to be."

"Don't get soft on me yet kid." Piccolo told her flatly "Your training to go Super Saiyan might be over, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us."

"Yeah, I know."

"Listen to me Pan, I know for a fact that what you tapped into is only a mere fraction of the power you have locked inside of you. We were able to break through one wall, and with any luck we'll soon be able to break through the next. You can't tell me that you're not curious, that you don't want to know how strong you can truly become. You can't just settle for being better when you could be the best."

"I know Piccolo, and we'll all have to be at our absolute best if we want to take Baby down and get our families back." Pan looked around to see Uub and the others gathering around them "I know we have a lot of work to do, but we'll get it done."

"That we will. Goku or not, we will win this fight, and we'll do it together, and I know just how we're going to do that."

**A/N:**

**While Piccolo wasn't exactly given the royal treatment in GT, the human Z fighters like Tien, Yamcha and others weren't given any treatment at all. Most of them didn't even have any lines. One big problem I have with Dragon Ball, as much as I love it, is that it makes it look like the Saiyans are the only one capable of doing anything, and then GT makes that even worse. This time around, it's going to be a lot more than just the Saiyans saving the day, though that doesn't mean they won't get to do anything. While I had originally decided to add in the likes of Tien and Yamcha to the story, I figured there would be too many complications with the power scaling for it to work in this story. As a result, I instead decided to incorporate Uub into the story earlier than he was included in canon.**

**For the record, now that he's had his potential awakened by Elder Kai, Piccolo can now access the Ultimate Form, to become what I will be referring to from now on as Ultimate Piccolo.**

**I'm not sure exactly how long it was between Baby taking over Vegeta's body and Goku and the others returning to Earth, so I decided to go ahead and have them return in this chapter, in order to progress the story faster.**

**Just throwing this out there, I thought that whole game after life thing was really stupid, so I decided to skip that and just have Goku be brought straight to the Sacred World of the Kais to begin his training to achieve Super Saiyan 4.**

**I know I know, a lot of people aren't fond of Pan in GT, myself somewhat included, but one of my favorite GT centered fics, A Hero is Born, revolves around her defeating Baby, and while that isn't going to happen in this fic, I do intend to include one idea from this fic: Pan going Super Saiyan, only in this one she's trained by Piccolo as Gohan was. Like father, like daughter. She's not going to be OP or anything, she'll be as strong as the likes of Trunks and Goten at most.**


	3. Arrival to Planet Tuffle, Battle Begins

**Dragonballreader: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you enjoyed the last chapter. Yeah, as bad as GT had treated Piccolo, I doubt many will disagree that Uub got it pretty bad too. I think his character arc with Majin Buu was wrapped up pretty nicely, though him being beaten down by Baby so easily won't be happening in this fic. Also, just for the record, I was never really fond of Majin Buu to begin with. Oh and yes, Ultimate Piccolo is something of my own creation, and it is going to be glorious when he goes all out. Yeah, as much as I want to include characters like Tien and Yamcha, the fact is that they're just not enough to make a difference in this story, so unfortunately I won't be including them. But yes, Super does treat the Z fighters much better than GT does, at least for the most part. As for Pan, I think the best way to summarize it is that she's at a disadvantage with poor writing and lack of development. It's too bad that story you mentioned was deleted, because it sounds really interesting.

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Morning came, and the sun was shining over the snow covered mountains.

Piccolo gathered Pan and the others outside of the cave "To be completely realistic, even with all of us fighting together, our chances of actually being able to defeat Baby are still extremely slim to none. His power is far too great as long as he's in control of Vegeta's body, and he has Gohan and the others under his control, so we need to play this strategically. Before we even think about confronting Baby directly, we need to bring Gohan, Trunks and Goten back to our side."

"But how do we do that?" asked Pan "Grandpa Goku and I tried to snap them out of it, and all we got was a bunch of Ki blasts to the face, mostly me for that matter."

"Appealing to them directly like that won't work, which is why we need something critical kept up on the Lookout: the Sacred Water."

"Sacred Water, what's that?"

"It's a legendary liquid with enormous healing capabilities, when it makes contact with anyone it purifies and removes any toxins from within the body, and expunge any evil energy from within the user as well."

"So you're saying that if we get our hands on this Sacred Water…"

"Then we can use it on Gohan and the others and turn them back to our side."

"So how do we get it?" asked Uub "From what you tell us, Dende and Mr Popo are also being controlled by Baby, so he would surely notice if we try to storm the Lookout for the only thing that could stop him."

"I know, and that's why I'm going alone, seeing how I'm the only one of us with the ability to move between areas instantaneously, something that I inherited from my _father. _Huh, the ironic part is that he actually did give me something useful aside from his power. Anyway, all of you wait here, and I'll be right back." and so he promptly blitzed away using his Instantaneous Movement.

"You think he can do it?"

"I think if anyone could, it would have to be Piccolo in this case." Pan told him "He knows the Lookout like the back of his hand."

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Meanwhile, up on the Lookout…

Piccolo materialized on the floor of the Lookout, and quickly hid behind a wall and made sure to suppress his Ki when he noticed Mr Popo was sweeping the grounds just a few short feet away from him '_Looks like I was right, Dende and Mr Popo are still being controlled by Baby. I can't let them discover me before I find the Sacred Water, so I'll need to be stealthy.' _so with that in mind, he made his way inside the temple building.

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Once he was inside, Piccolo quickly ducked behind a wall to avoid Dende spotting him, though it did prove to be a close call '_Sneaking around inside my own home like some kind of petty cat burglar? Well this is humiliating, but then again it still doesn't come even close to having to play volleyball with Gotenks. Even after all these years it just feels wrong.'_

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It took Piccolo only a matter of moments to reach the throne room, which was surrounded by various large jugs full of water, one of which he quickly moved out of the way to reveal another room full of large jugs of water '_Okay, Namekians needing only water is one thing, but looking back I have no idea why Dende keeps so many of these things up here. I mean if they were actually Sacred Water then that would be one thing, but even when I'm staying up here that would only make three people.'_

"Why are you running around in here like some kind of petty cat burglar Piccolo?" a certain voice got his attention.

Piccolo slowly turned around to see Dende and Mr Popo standing in the doorway, both of them having glowing red eyes '_Yeah that figures, I guess his senses are sharper than I was expecting from him.'_

"Surely you don't intend to use the Sacred Water against the wishes of Baby, do you? Because you should know all too well, those who try such foolish things will be met with a grim yet well deserved fate."

"I think you already know what the answe to that is Dende."

"Indeed I do. We were comrades once, but we cannot allow this to continue further. Prepare to defend yourself." and so Dende and Mr Popo promptly charged at him.

Piccolo wasted no time in retreating further back into the room "Dende we both know you're not a warrior, do you really believe that you can do anything to hurt me?"

"If I must in order to servce Lord Baby, then I will!"

'_Dammit, that figures.' _Piccolo retreated away from them until he eventually got to the very back of the room '_I've looked everywhere but these are all normal barrels of water. Dammit, where the hell did Kami keep the stuff?' _he pressed his hand against the wall, only to find it resting on a small jug.

"It's over Piccolo, this is the end of the line." this was when Dende and Mr Popo caught up with him, the latter pouncing at him with the intent to kill.

"On that we can agree." Piccolo promptly splashed Mr Popo with the Sacred Water, causing him to cry out in pain as the evil energy was slowly expunged from his body.

"What's happening to you Popo? Come on Mr Popo, snap out of it!" and before he could realize it, Dende was promptly splashed as well, causing him to cry out in pain as the evil energy was purifieid from within him.

"Believe me when I say this you two, what I'm doing is for your own good."

Dende and Mr Popo eventually stopped writing in agony, and they blinked a few times "What… What happened?"

"Good, you're both back to normal now."

"Piccolo, what are you doing here? How did we get here?"

"I don't have enough time to explain everything to you guys right now, but I can tell you that we're going to need the Sacred Water later."

"Wait what?"

"Next up, get back to Pan and the others, and then we'll head to the Tuffle planet in order to find and free Gohan, Trunks and Goten." and so Piccolo blitzed away from the scene, taking the Sacred Water with him.

"...Hey Mr Popo, I don't suppose you have any idea what the heck is going on right now?" he received a simple headshake "Good, so I'm not the only one."

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Piccolo blitzed onto the scene and found Uub and Pan meditating "Looks like you've both been busy since I was gone, that's good."

Pan's eyes snapped open "Did you get it?"

"I did." he held up the Sacred Water "I already cured Dende and Mr Popo, so that's a start. The next step in my plan is for us to head to Planet Tuffle and start breaking down Baby's army one by one, starting with Gohan, Trunks and Goten."

"But how do we do it?" asked Uub.

"Considering Baby has them with him at all times, it's going to be next to impossible to lure them away without him noticing, so there's only one thing we can do." Piccolo turned to face all of them (Uub, Pan, Mr Satan and Majin Buu) and his gaze hardened "The fact is that Goku is gone, so right now we're the only ones standing between the rest of the universe and domination by an alien parasite. Let's make no mistake here, without a doubt this is going to be the fight of our lives. We've taken down one foe to this world and the universe after another, and we _will _do it again. The plan is simple, but it won't be easy. First we have to head to the Tuffle Planet up in the solar system, and once we're there we need to locate Gohan, Trunks and Goten."

"And then use the Sacred Water to free them?" Pan guessed.

"We'll most likely have to defeat them in order to do that. The fact is that this is the fight of our lives, and we're going to win, and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure of that. Now come on, we have to get going."

"Right." so on that note, the four of them grabbed onto Piccolo, which prompted him to use his Instantaneous Movement to disappear in a flash.

The true battle was about to begin, and it would not be an easy fight.

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The scene of Planet Plant was rather barren, albeit with some green here and there, though it was mostly a barren wasteland surrounded by abandoned buildings and a massive tower in the center for all of the planet to see.

Piccolo and the others materialized on the surface of the planet, and he quickly motioned for them to hide inside of a crevice in a canyon "We're here."

"So what next?" asked Pan.

"Next we need to track down your father and the others."

"There's no need for that, they're right up there." Uub pointed up above them at the front of the canyon.

"And so is Baby."

Sure enough, Baby stood above them at the foot of the massive tower, towering over about 99% of his subjects with Gohan and the others all by his side "Hear me my subjects, for today is a glorious day in the history of this universe! As of today, the long struggle between the people of the Tuffles and the wretched Saiyans has at last come to an end! I made a vow on the graves of my fallen Tuffle brethren! The road that lies ahead of us will be challenging, for decades of chaos and bloodshed led by the Saiyan scourge has left the universe scarred and divided! But I give my word to all of you, my loyal subjects, when I say that with my leadership, we will bring about a new era for the universe, one of unity and harmony, one that will show the universe why the Tuffles are the greatest species this universe has ever seen, or ever will see!" he was met with various cheers, but then he turned his gaze to a certain crevice in the canyon "Unfortunately my subjects, our uniting the universe will have to wait. We have unwanted visitors."

"...So he knows we're here." Piccolo turned to the others "There's only one thing we can do now, we take the fight to them directly and hope for the best. Pan, Uub, you're with me. Buu and Mr Satan, you two stay here for now." and so he calmly made his way out of the crevice and into the open canyon, with Pan and Uub slowly following his lead, only to be met with a massive uproar from the various brainwashed humans under Baby's control that barred their way.

"Silence!" Baby shut them up and floated down to ground level to meet them, with Gohan and the others following his lead "Step aside, let them pass." they stepped aside and made way for them, although the scowls they had still remained.

Piccolo stepped forward, but stopped Pan and Uub a short distance away "I take it you didn't expect to see any of us again, let alone me?"

"I will admit I am somewhat surprised you survived our last encounter, and you seem a great deal more powerful than before." the arrogant smirk on Baby's face grew wider "It seems like such a waste. After all, you could've been a part of a new era for this world, for this universe as a whole, and yet instead you made the choice to stand against me, against us, and for what? What could be worth standing against us? The legacy of some wretched Saiyans?"

"I could go on and give some big heroic speech about fighting for our freedom, for our friends that you enslaved and/or killed, but I already gave one of those speeches today and I have no intention of giving another. Instead of that, how about we just get this under way?"

"I suppose that would make the most sense, not that it will do you much good. You can fight as hard as you desire, but no matter how much you try the results will be the same. My power is absolute, and with the forces I have under my command, I am unstoppable!"

"I think we'll agree to disagree."

"Is that so? Well, I think we'll see about that. I have no need to waste any of my energy fighting you myself, especially when I have much better things to do. I think I'll let my heralds take care of you instead." so Baby leapt back atop the tower, looking down in amusement at the battle that was about to unfold.

Piccolo glanced back between Pan and Uub "It's time, are you two ready for this?"

"We wouldn't be here if we weren't." Pan pointed out.

"Good, now be sure to back up that talk. We've got company."

Sure enough, at that moment Gohan floated down in front of them, with Goten and Trunks right behind him, and Bulla right behind them, though he quickly lost the malicious look on his face when he looked eyes with Piccolo "I knew it. Even after Lord Baby said that he had finished you, I knew that you were still alive Piccolo."

"Spare me the pleasentries Gohan, we both know how this is going to go."

"I know. I just wish it didn't have to." Gohan breathed a sigh of what seemed like remorse, then turned to the others "I'm going to handle Piccolo myself, the rest of you take care of Pan and the others." he turned back to Piccolo "Come on, let's do this where we won't be interrupted."

"On that we can agree." Piccolo grabbed onto Gohan by the wrist, and the two of them vanished using his Instantaneous Movement.

Uub glanced between the three of them remaining '_Goten, Trunks and Bulla. From what I can sense, Bulla and Pan seem to be on the same level, so if she can take her then I should be free to take on Goten and Trunks myself. _Pan, I want you to take on Bulla by yourself while I go ahead and take on Goten and Trunks."

"You going to be okay on your own?" asked Pan.

"I did spent a few years training with Goku, so it would be disrespectful to him to not put that time to good use."

"Fair enough I guess, but who am I going to deal with?"

"I think that would obvious dear daughter."

Pan looked ahead and her expression paled slightly "Bulla and… mom?"

Sure enough, Videl floated down towards her with a malicious grin plastered across her face and a wicked gleam in her eyes "Relax dear daughter, I'm sure you're safe now. You know all too well that while you may be stronger now, if Lord Baby thought it was worth wasting his time with you, it would be over in a matter of seconds. Listen to your mother dear, now if you behave like a good little girl then I'll do everything in my power to make sure he spares you. In fact, why don't you use your good manners and come with us to see him right now?"

"Mom… I'm sorry, but I doubt Baby would want to spare me, and even if he did there's no way I'm going anywhere with you while you're like this."

"I see. Well then I have no choice, if you will not obey Lord Baby then I have no other option but to end your time in this plain of existence! Goodbye dear daughter!" Videl was suddenly engulfed by a milky white aura as she charged forward and let a fist fly.

With her aura flaring, Pan caught Videl's hand with ease, and then dealt her a spin kick that sent her tumbling backwards "I'm not the same weak little girl I used to be, in body or in mind, and you can thank Piccolo for that."

"Don't you dare mock the Tuffles you wretched Saiyan scum!" Videl suddenly burst forward and launched a medium sized Ki blast at her.

Pan suddenly blitzed forward and spun herself upside down, allowing her to deflect the Ki blast with a single kick.

Videl barely managed to get out of the way of the Ki blast before it hit her '_That was way too close, how did she get so strong?'_

"I know what you're thinking, how did I get so strong?" Pan suddenly blitzed in front of her too fast for her to follow "I could give a lot of answers ranging from having a great teacher in the form of Piccolo, or having stronger conviction, but the fact is that I put my damndest into training because I'm trying to save you from being a slave to a deranged monstrous lunatic like your so called lord!" and so Pan promptly dealt Videl a solid kick to the face that send her crashing into the cliffside of the canyon, the force knocking her out cold '_Oh I am so going to get grounded for that when this is over.'_

Uub glanced over from where he had caught a fist from Trunks and threw him into Goten, the force sending both of them flying, and he gave a small smile '_You've grown strong Pan, truly strong. I just wish Goku were here to see how much you've grown. I guess now it's time for me to do my part.' _and so he promptly blasted off after Trunks and Goten, intent on fulfilling his part of the plan.

Pan watched him soar off, and then looked down at Videl '_I'm sorry mom, I hope you'll understand why I did what I had to do to you today, but I can't dwell on any shame over my actions right now. My job isn't over yet.'_

Sure enough, Bulla stepped forward dressed in what looked like a similar version of Saiyan battle armor "I think we both knew that this was going to come eventually Pan, the time for both of us to face off."

"Looks like I'm not the only one who's really powered up in the time I've been gone, but I didn't expect the battle armor."

"Being recruited by Lord Baby was a great incentive and really opened my eyes to how much potential I truly had as a warrior, and he's been personally training me for weeks now."

"I've been trained by Piccolo myself, so I guess we'll just have to see which one of them is the better teacher." Pan's aura spiked higher, only to be met with Bulla's doing the same '_I can sense it, her power is far higher than I was expecting her to be. Looks like this isn't going to be an easy fight after all. _So this is it then is it Bulla, is this how far you've come in the time that you've been under Baby's control?"

"You prefer to call it control, I prefer to call it enlightenment, but yes, this is the power that I've gained because of him. He helped me to realize that there's a difference between those who aim for the top, and those who will settle. He thought that I was worth his time, so in gratitude for that, I will aim for the top, and I will start by ridding the world of the Saiyan scourge."

"We'll see about that. You're right about one thing though, Piccolo told me that I shouldn't settle for being better when I could be the best. From what I know Baby is the most powerful enemy that Grandpa or Piccolo and any of the others have ever faced, so we have to aim as high as we can if we want to surpass him, but even then the thought of facing him still somewhat scares me, but I feel okay knowing that I have Piccolo and others by my side. They're the ones pushing me to get stronger, to keep moving forward!" and so Pan charged forward, meeting Bulla in an explosive collision and elbowing her in the face.

Bulla dodged the next attack and began firing off a furious barrage of punches and kicks at full speed, resulting in the two of them trading even blows until their fists collided with a blinding flash, before they broke it off "Now let's see you handle this! **Galick Gun… FIRE!" **she fired off a medium sized Galick Gun.

Pan quickly dodged the Galick Gun and fired a barrage of Ki blasts at Bulla at full speed.

Bulla wasted no time or effort as she dodged, blocked and deflected every Ki blast being hurled at her with ease "Don't think that's all it's going to take for you to beat me!"

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Pan blitzed behind Bulla and dealt her a sharp kick to the face, the force sending her crashing into the wall of the canyon, and then she prepared to follow up with a quick Kamehameha.

Bulla rebounded just in time to fire a Galick Gun as she spiked her aura, which allowed her to overpower Pan's Kamehameha as a result.

Pan blitzed out of the path of the blast, blitzed down towards Bulla and dealt her a solid kick to the chest while she was still stuck in the position of firing the Galick Gun, and then she began quickly forcing her on the defensive with a swift barrage of punches and kicks.

With her aggravation growing, Bulla dealt Pan a heavy fist to the gut and followed up with a quick Galick Gun to the face, sending her tumbling backwards across the canyon.

Pan rebounded after a few seconds as the two of them both took to the skies, their auras blending together in the form of a double helix that lit up the skies across the entire planet.

Bulla took the opportunity to deal Pan a furious barrage of attacks, landing a series of repeated knees to the spine "Oh come on, I thought Saiyan scum didn't even know the meaning of holding back!" they started grappling in a fierce power struggle "Saiyan scum should know a lot better than to hold out on a superior opponent!" she grabbed Pan by the arm and hurled her even higher into the air, and she charged in to finish it as she did something that shocked her opponent: she powered up to Super Saiyan, with the blond hair and everything "I know you're still holding out on me, I want you to come at me with everything you've got!"

"You want to see my everything?! Well fine, but don't say I never warned you!" so Pan then shook off the shock, and with a mighty roar, her golden colored Super Saiyan form roared into life.

"I told you that want you to give me your everything, because that's exactly what I'm giving you right now!"

"And my everything is what you're about to get!" Pan charged downwards towards Bulla at full speed, resulting in a blinding clash as she dealt Bulla a full force fist to the gut.

Bulla slugged Pan in the gut in retaliation and dealt her a fist to the face "I want you to come at me already you little Saiyan bitch, give me every ounce of strength you have right here and right now! Do you hear me?! Everything!"

"Fine!" Pan flared her golden aura as high as she was able to, her body beginning to crackle with a small amount of electricity as a result "Alright Bulla, come at me so we can end this fight already!"

"I plan to!" pushing her own power to the absolute limit, Bulla charged towards Pan as high and as fast as she could, resulting in a blinding clash that lit up the skies across the planet, as well as shaking the surfac of the planet itself. When everything subsided, Bulla had lost her Super Saiyan aura, but she still whipped around and aimed one last fist at Pan, but she stopped just before she could make contact, and instead her body finally gave out and she began falling towards the ground at full speed.

Pan caught Bulla by the arm and gently lowered her to the ground near where Mr Satan was hiding out with Buu, and then she blitzed away and came back with Videl, and gently set both of them down on the ground "Alright Gramps, take care of them and make sure you give them the Sacred Water before they wake up."

"R-Right." so Mr Satan promptly gave both Videl and Bulla a small amount of the Sacred Water, causing them to groan in agony while they were unconscious as the evil red energy was released from their bodies "A-Are they okay?"

"Don't worry Gramps, according to Piccolo this is all part of the process of them being freed from Baby's control." Pan gave him a reassuring smile, but then she turned deadly serious once again "Be sure you and Buu take care of them Gramps, because this isn't over yet, not by a long shot."

"What are you gonna do now Pan?"

"All I can do now is see if Uub or Piccolo need any help in their fights, but if not… well then I guess all we can do is wait and see how this plays out. Grandpa isn't going to be coming to the rescue this time."

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**Son Pan, the granddaughter of Son Goku, and Bulla, the daughter of Prince Vegeta, descendents of a warrior race. The two of them have tested each other in the heat of the battlefield, and as a result the struggle against the remnants of the Tuffle race is now one step closer to its end. But the struggle is still far from over, as even though one of Baby's heralds has fallen, three more still remain, along with Baby himself. The battle continues next time on Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo's Counterattack!**

**A/N:**

**And with this chapter, we get into the third chapter that fixes the best arc of GT, which doesn't sound very promising now that I think about it. Before I get into the notes, let me apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. More than a full month is a long time to wait I know, but you guys know the state the world is in right now, and combine that with all of my work for college and my other stories, and I just found myself very behind on this. But trust me, I have no intention of losing interest in this story or abandoning it.**

**Okay, so now we're getting into the main action of this story, at least before Goku shows up and brings out Super Saiyan 4. I'll be honest with you, while I do prefer Super over GT a great deal, I won't deny that Super Saiyan 4 is a far better transformation than Super Saiyan Blue, even if it does have Blue Kaioken going for it. Still though, it's not enough to excuse the significant flaws GT has, which I'm mainly trying to correct with this fic.**

**A major missed opportunity, at least in my eyes, was something that I don't think many people have actually thought about, was the inclusion of Bulla. In all honestly, I've come to believe that she's a character that's been heavily glossed over. Keep in mind that she has Saiyan blood in her too, and I'm taking the opportunity to use that in this story. Plus I got to give a good fight between her and Pan, to showcase what both of them are capable of if they take it seriously.**

**All things considered though, the fight between Pan and Bulla was more of a last minute decision, and if anything it was meant to be more of a prelude to the real action that I'll be starting with in the next chapter. That one is going to be about how Uub will take on Trunks and Goten, and then we get into the real good stuff after that: the showdown between Piccolo and Gohan.**


	4. Two Halves Reunited, Majuub's Rebirth

**SSJGogeta729024: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. Yes, while the Garlic Jr saga was pretty bad, the Sacred Water was a good idea. I'm also glad that you approve of my last-minute decision to include Bulla, but you're right about her. The writers really had no idea about what to do with her in GT, emphasized by her lack of screen time. I also agree with your opinion on GT as a whole. I wouldn't necessarily say that I hate it, but I do agree that it's the weakest out of every series in Dragon Ball. As for that Super Dragon Ball Heroes story you mentioned, I'll have to check that out sometime.

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Things were getting angsty on the Sacred World of the Kais.

Despite initially holding out, Old Kai finally relented and allowed Goku to journey to Planet Tuffle to assist Piccolo and the others without finishing his training, after Goku tried to order him to send him there, but there was still a catch.

Goku was told to lower his pants, revealing that his tail was starting to grow back, and since the only way for him to gain additional power to defeat Baby was to have his tail back, Goku had to agree, albeit reluctantly.

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The battle against Baby's force was about to intensify.

Uub sent Goten crashing into Trunks with a single kick that sent both of them flying, and he glanced over into the distance and gave a small smile '_So Bulla's Ki signature is gone? I mean it's still there, but she's out cold. Nice work Pan, if only Goku were able to see how much you've grown.'_

"You should be focused on the fight at hand!" Trunks blitzed in front of Uub and fired a Buster Cannon.

Uub deflected it and dealt Trunks a simple Ki blast that sent him tumbling backwards "I guess you're right. Goku was my mentore and my friend, he taught my everything that I knew so that when the day came, I could use it to make things right, and that's what I'm going to do!" he then flared his white aura, the sheer force shaking the surface of the planet as his body bulked up slightlly.

Trunks and Goten were forced to brace themselves to avoid being blown away "This is bad, his power level is incredible! Nothing compared to Lord Baby, but still incredible."

"Yeah, no kidding." Goten muttered "I knew that my father had trained him, but I never would've guessed he would grow to be this powerful."

"It doesn't matter, just because that Saiyan is gone he decides to throw a tantrum. It won't change anything in the grand scheme of things, no matter if we fall he and the others will still have to go through Gohan and Lord Baby, and that's if he's able to defeat us. At the very least, we can stall him until Gohan is through with Piccolo, and then he's as good as dead."

"You should take your own advice and focus on the fight at hand." Uub got their attention "I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I know for a fact that the two of you can't defeat me."

"Don't think you can just sound so arrogant, if you dare to defy Lord Baby then we'll kill you without hesitation!" Goten and Trunks both flashed into Super Saiyan and charged at Uub at full speed.

Uub blitzed through their attack and dealt Trunks a kick to the stomach, sending him flying into a nearby mountain.

"Don't forget about me!" Goten charged at Uub at full speed, with Trunks rebounding and joining the fray, the two of them trying to deal Uub a furious barrage of attacks.

Uub dodged, blocked and countered every punch and kick being thrown at him, but it ended when Uub slugged Goten into a nearby mountain and send Trunks tumbling away with a swift kick to the chest.

"Let's see how you like this! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!" **Goten fired off a full power Kamehameha.

'_There's Goten, now what's Trunks-'_

"You can join Goku in hell! **Buster Cannon!" **Trunks unleashed a Buster Cannon that synchronized with Goten's Kamehameha, the two blasts engulfing Uub in the explosion that resulted.

"**KamehameHA!" **when the smoke cleared, Uub revealed himself to be unharmed and fired off a full power Kamehameha of his own.

"Trunks get out of the way!" Goten hurled Trunks out of the way of the blast, only to end up taking it himself, sending him tumbling across the landscape with some noticeable burns.

'_He took the blow for him without a second thought? I guess Baby's mind control can't erode their entire personalities.'_

"Goten no! You're gonna pay for that you scum!" Trunks spiked his aura and promptly charged at Uub in a rage.

Uub dodged and blocked every blow that Trunks aimed at him, but then he glanced back and realized that Goten was charging at him '_So this was a diversionary tactic?'_

"What the hell are you looking at?!" Trunks aimed a kick at Uub's head, only to be met with a fist to the face that sent him crashing to the ground.

Uub then proceeded to fend off a barrage of attacks from Goten, and dealt him a swift kick to the chest that sent him hurtling backwards, but then he was forced to evade a barrage of Ki blasts coming at him from his blind spot '_So they're working on trying to defeat me using a series of coordinated attacks.'_

"I'm not done with you yet!" Trunks charged towards him and let a fist fly forward packed to the brim with Super Saiyan ki.

Uub spiked his aura and was able to catch the hand with ease "Your strike is impressive, I guess I shouldn't expect any less from the son of Vegeta, but that's not going to be enough for you to win against me!" he then dealt Trunks a ki-enhanced fist to the gut, causing him to cough up blood and fall out of Super Saiyan as he was sent crashing into a nearby mountain.

"Trunks no!" Goten promptly charged at Uub in a rage.

Uub stopped Goten mid-charge and try to deal him a Ki-enhanced fist to the gut.

"**KamehameHA!" **Goten blitzed out of the range of this attack and fired a quick Kamehameha in mid-air.

"**Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!" **Uub was quick to counter Goten's Kamehameha using one of his own, blowing clear through Goten's blast with ease and sending him crashing to the ground in a heap. With the battle supposedly over, Uub made his way over to Goten's downed form, his expression one of remorse "I'm sorry about this, I really am. I wish it didn't have to come to this, but I promise I'll make sure that you and Trunks are freed from Baby's control."

Goten gritted his teeth and pulled himself onto his knees, and he looked over to Trunks as he climbed out from within the rubble, and the two of them locked eyes '_He's a fucking beast in every sense of the word, at this rate we've only got one option left.'_

"I wish it didn't have to come to this you two." Uub leapt back a short distance and cupped his hands at his side, blue Ki building between his palms "I don't want to have to hurt you two, but you've left me with no choice. I promise to make this as painless as I can. **Ka… Me…"**

"Come on Trunks, we've got maybe seconds at the most!" Goten and Trunks pulled themselves to their feet and got into two simultaneous stances "**FU-"**

"**Ha… Me…"**

"**-SION-" **they started going through different stances that reflected each other perfectlty.

"**HA!" **Uub finally fired a full power Super Kamehameha.

"**HA!" **Goten and Trunks finished the final pose and their fingers connected, only seconds before the Super Kamehameha engulfed them.

'_Is it over?' _Uub let out a sigh as he powered down, but then his head snapped up '_What is this incredible power level I'm sensing?!' _he leapt out of the way right before a sudden blur could strike him '_So fast!'_

The dust settled to reveal a figure in a Metamoran Fusion outfit, along with a head of hair that was a mix of black and purple hair, and he shot a smirk at Uub "Hey, so are you ready for the second round?"

"What is this, who are you?"

"I'm neither Goten nor Trunks, I'm a warrior created by the Metamoran Fusion Dance. I am the ultimate warrior intent on pursuing the justice of the Tuffle race! I am a proud and loyal herald to the great Lord Baby! I am Gotenks!"

"Metamoran Fusion Dance? You mean that thing Goku told me about where-"

"Where we dance like Power Rangers and become a single being with power that surpasses even the most powerful of warriors throughout the cosmos! Now I'm going to carry out the wishes of the great Lord Baby by destroying anyone who might stand in his way!" Gotenks then flashed into Super Saiyan as his golden aura spiked wildly, shaking the surface of the planet with the sheer force "Yes, this feeling is absolutely incredible! I can feel so much Ki building up inside of me, it feels like there's no limit to it!"

Uub was forced to brace himself for the shockwaves '_This is bad, his power is so massive I can't even tell if it has a limit!'_

"It's been almost two decades since I've last used this power, and now it's time to see just what I'm capable of now!" Gotenks suddenly blitzed behind Uub and dealt him a sharp kick to the spine, then deflected a stray Ki blast without batting an eye, and then he followed up by quickly dealing Uub a sharp fist to the face, sending him hurtling to the ground "Now you're going to see the true extent of my power!"

Uub pulled himself back to his feet and wiped some blood from his lip '_Dammit I'm such a fool, I should've expected them to have some sort of trump card or last resort.'_

"This power flowing through me, it's fucking amazing!" Gotenks's aura surged even higher than before "With this power at my disposal, you can be sure Lord Baby will reign supreme across the universe! No one in the cosmos can compete with this might!" he promptly burst forward and let a fist fly.

Uub leapt out of the way at the last second, avoiding being hit by only a few inches.

"Looks like I'll need to kick things up a notch or two, I have so much power it's easy for me to overshoot you! But I should warn you that I'm not going to miss again!" he promptly blitzed forward and buried his fist in Uub's gut, then dealt him a smash attack to the head.

Fortunately, Uub was able to block the smash attack "Your strength and speed are on an entirely different level compared to when the two of you were separate."

"That's nothing, get a load of this one!" Gotenks dealt Uub a brutal uppercut, sending him crashing to the ground a short distance away "Don't think that's all I've got going for me, I'm just getting started!" he grabbed Uub by the ankle and started swinging him around in a very wild fashion.

'_This is insane, his power is unbelievable!'_

"What's the matter, I thought the student of Goku would be able to handle a hell of a lot more than this!" he promptly hurled Uub into a nearby mountain "Oh hell yes, this power is more amazing than I remember!" and then he burst forward.

Uub rebouded just in time to be forced on the defensive by Gotenk's onslaught '_He's not letting up, I'm lucky to just be defending.'_

"Face the facts Uub, I'm totally on fire! **Buster Cannon!" **he promptly fired a Buster Cannon at nearly point-blank range.

'_There's no time to dodge it!' _so Uub did the only thing he could, he tried to block it, but he was still engulfed in the explosion that followed. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that he was still standing there with only a few minor wounds, but his aura had turned from white to a deep shade of crimson "**Kaioken."**

"So this is the famous Kaioken I've been hearing so much about, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Goku taught it to you of all people. It's about time you decided to get serious."

"I don't have anywhere near the level of control that Goku does with this technique, but I know for a fact that if I don't use everything I have then I'll end up in serious trouble."

"And it only took you until now to realize that? Well better late than never I guess, so I guess I'll just have to push it to the next level myself!" with a furious roar, Gotenks powered himself up to the next level, Super Saiyan 2, his aura crackling with electricity "I really hope you're ready for this one Uub, because now we're gonna be fighting for real!"

"I'm fully prepared for that."

"Just make sure you don't get scared and end up pissing yourself!"

"I'm fully prepared for whatever you can throw at me Gotenks."

"We'll see about that, now let's do this!" the two of them burst forward and started trading even blows, sending out various shockwaves and electrical storms across the battlefield.

Uub tried to deal Gotens a kick from behind, only for him to blitzed out of the way, with this forcing Uub to retreat a distance away and fire forward a barrage of Ki blasts.

Gotenks wasted no time in firing forward his own barrage of Ki blasts of his own, the collision cancelling them out '_Looks like that Kaioken aura isn't just for show, he's definitely more powerful than he was before.'_

'_This is incredible, even Goku would have a hard time keeping up with him like this.' _the two of them broke off from their barrages of Ki blasts and went back to trading evenly matched series of punches and kicks.

"If you're struggling like this so much when you've got Kaioken going for you then you're clearly either running on fumes or you're just not as good as you thought you were!"

"It doesn't matter if I am Gotenks, I can't afford to lose this fight!"

"Maybe I'll just go even higher than this, how would you like to see that?!"

"Do you really think you can?"

"I think you'll find out soon enough, but there's something else I have to do fist, and that's show you why don't mess with the Tuffles!" their fists collided with such force that it sent out a massive shockwave across the planet, but then they broke away "Hey get this Uub, I've got something I think you're gonna love to see! **Buster Cannon!" **he fired forward a full power Buster Cannon.

"**Kaioken… 3x!" **Uub pushed his Kaioken as high as he could and deflected the Buster Cannon using both hands, leaving it to detonate in the upper atmosphere '_That was way too close, if it wasn't for the Kaioken then I'd be in serious trouble. The question is, how long will my body be able to hold out with it? I can't keep up Kaioken forever, and I doubt Super Saiyan will have anywhere near as much strain on Gotenks. I guess I don't have any other choice right now. _Come on Gotenks, I say it's time for us to start the real fight!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself! It's a damn shame, if you didn't side with the rest of the Saiyan scum then you'd be a force to be reckoned with, but now defeating you is going to prove my usefulness to Lord Baby! **Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack!" **Gotenks expelled three ghosts from his mouth and sent all of them forward to attack.

Uub blitzed around the ghosts, leaving them to detonate upon crashing into each other, and he dealt Gotenks a kick to the stomach that sent him skidding backwards, despite the kick being blocked.

Gotenks stopped himself before too long "I can feel myself shaking from that one kick, it's incredible. I've never had a battle like this one before, you may side against Lord Baby, but I have to admit that fighting against someone as strong as you is exciting. I just keep getting more and more pumped as we go on!" he spiked his aura.

"I have to admit, it does feel somewhat nice to know that training with Goku for so many years finally paid off."

"And now I'm gonna rip you apart!" Gotenks pounced at Uub, only for him to suddenly blitz out of view "What the hell?!"

"I'm right here!" Uub blitzed in front of Gotenks and buried his fist in his gut, sending him hurtling back across the skies of Planet Tuffle and crashing into a nearby mountain '_I can only hope that was enough, I can tell that my Kaioken isn't going to last for too much longer. If it didn't, then I'll have to find a way to finish this quickly.'_

When the mountain stopped crumbling, Gotenks pulled himself back to his feet and spat out some blood "I'm not gonna lie Uub, that blow really stung. Take my advice and savor it while you can, because it's the last blow you'll ever land!"

"I think we'll see about that soon enough. _He's definitely a lot tougher than he looks, I put as much power as I could into that punch.'_

"I hope you're ready Uub, because I'm about to finish this fight right now! **Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack!" **Gotenks fired forward a single ghost from his mouth.

"I thought it would be obvious that using the same attack again wouldn't be enough for you to win against me!" he fired a quick Kamehameha that incinerated the ghost on the spot.

"You fell for it!" Gotenks suddenly blitzed behind Uub and dealt him a sharp kick to the neck, sending him tumbling across the battlefield and literally knocking the Kaioken out of him in the process "And that's why you don't mess with the Fusion. Now that you're out of the way, the only real threat left is Piccolo, and then no one will be left to stand against Lord Baby. Now all I have to do is finish the job and send you to join Goku in the next world." he cupped his hands at his side, blue Ki building in his palms "**Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

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Meanwhile, with the B-team…

Pan and the others looked on in horror as they watched Uub fall from afar "This is bad, Uub is a goner at this rate! I have to go help him!"

"Ms Pan no." Buu suddenly held out an arm to stop her from going "Ms Pan has to be kept safe no matter what, Buu promised this to Mr Satan."

"But-"

"Things will be safe for both of you very soon, Buu promise." then Buu turned towards his first friend, Mr Satan, and he gave a smile full of what looked like sadness "Mr Satan, Buu always like you."

Mr Satan could only blink at this "Uh, Buu what are you talking about?"

"Back when Mr Satan and Buu first met, Mr Satan attack the evil mean guy who shoot the little puppy, a good thing to do. Mr Satan will always be Buu's best friend."

"And Buu, you're my best friend too. You always have been, but where the heck is this coming from right now?"

"You always be Buu's friend, but Uub… Buu been thinking a lot about Uub too. Buu can only think about Uub alone and fighting. Buu and Mr Satan be friends forever, Buu will never forget all that Mr Satan gave him." he started to take to the air.

"Buu what are you doing?"

"Buu do what has to be done, what Mr Satan would do, so Buu do what Mr Satan taught him to do." and with one final sad wave, Buu blasted off towards the battlefield.

"Buu come back, what are you doing?!"

"I think I know gramps." Pan told him quietly "I can't say for certain, but… I think this might be the last time we see him. _Buu, what are you thinking?'_

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

"Now all I have to do is finish the job and send you to join Goku in the next world." with the battle supposedly over, Gotenks promptly cupped his hands at his side, blue Ki building in his palms "**Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

'_Dammit…' _Uub spat out some blood and tried to pull himself up off the ground, though this was to no avail '_I can't move… I can't defend myself… Is this it?'_

"How pathetic, I stand above you holding the instrument of your death in my hands, and all you can do is look scared. I thought you would be a lot better than that, someone I could actually try and test my power on. It looks like I overestimated your abilities, to think you were actually trained by Goku of all people. So here it must come to an end, the cleansing of the Tuffle people is finally about to become a reality! Time for you to meet Goku in the depths of hell where you belong! **HAAAAAA!" **Gotenks finally fired off a full power Super Kamehameha.

Uub braced himself for the impact, only to freeze when he saw Buu suddenly appear before him and try to absorb the blast '_What is that?' _but then it turned out that Buu couldn't hold it in for too long and exploded anyway, with Uub being engulfed in the process.

Gotenks blitzed out of the column of smoke that resulted from the explosion and took a moment to stop himself from coughing "Not as graceful as I would've liked, but like Goku he's now nothing more than a small pile of ashes. I had best report back to Lord Baby and inform him that this pest has been dealt with. I can't keep him waiting for too long." so he powered back down to his base form and blasted off towards the tower '_Now all that's left is for Gohan to hurry up and take care of Piccolo, and then all threats to the new Tuffle empire will have been expunged from the universe for good.'_

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Meanwhile, with Uub…

What Gotenks had failed to realize that was, from within the massive column of smoke that resulted from the blast, Uub was still alive, albeit just barely, having been engulfed in a pink dome of Ki "Someone saved me… but who was it… and how…?"

"_Uub… Uub…" _a certain voice echoed from within the pink sphere of Ki.

"Whose voice is that? Are you the one that saved me from Gotenks?"

"_Yes…"_ and then a silhouette of Buu suddenly appeared before him "_I am Buu…"_

"Are you… I don't know… what it is, but… somehow… I feel as if… you and I… we've met before… I have memories of you… but what…"

"_Long ago, Buu and Uub were one in the same. This Majin Buu brought all of his energies together, and then a good Buu was created. It was you Uub, born of the good inside."_

"You mean you and I… we were born from the same being…? Really?"

"_That's right. But now it's time for Buu and Uub to be one again. All of Buu's power combined with all of Uub's power." _the silhouette of Buu faded away, and the scattered remains of him started clumping together onto Uub's body, engulfing him in a white light.

When the smoke cleared, the light subsided to reveal Uub, fully healed and with a new attire to go with his new power, the same vest and white pants that Buu had worn, although without the cape, and he took a moment to get a grip on his new power "What… What happened? What did you do to me?"

"_It happened. Buu and Uub have become one again. Now we're Majuub."_

"I… I can feel it! I'm so much more powerful than I ever thought possible!" Uub, now going to be referred to as Majuub, spiked his white aura "Thank you Buu, I owe you my life. Now come on, I think we have some unifinished business to attend to." and so he blasted off across the skies of Planet Tuffle, intent on finishing what he had begun.

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Things were slow going on the Sacred World of the Kais, as Goku continued his attempts to regrow his tail, which had already begun to emerge, but it still had a long way to go before it would be completed.

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Meanwhile, back on Planet Tuffle…

Gotenks continued blasting across the skies of Planet Tuffle, only to stop in mid-air when he sensed something hurtling towards him '_This power, it's so incredible and yet I've never sensed it before, yet it somehow feels so familiar. Don't tell me…'_

This was when Majuub screeched to a halt in front of him, his eyes blazing with nothing but pure determination "Hey there, did you miss me?"

"I didn't think that you survived, I guess you're luckier than I gave you credit for." Gotenks then flashed right back into Super Saiyan 2.

"Luck doesn't have anything to do with it Gotenks, and there's no way that you're going to get rid of me anytime soon."

"Something does seem different I'll give you that, but if you think you've got a chance in hell of beating me, let alone Lord Baby, then you're in for a rude awaknieng. But if that's what you want then I won't object, just keep in mind that you asked for this so you have no one to blame but yourself! **Die Die Missile Barrage!" **he fired off a swift barrage of Ki blasts.

Majuub didn't have to do anything more than spike his milky white aura, and that was enough to dissipate the Ki blasts in an instant "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, thank you for giving me that little heads up."

'_What the hell, that's impossible! _That was luck, just blind stupid luck you hear me?! And I get guarantee you won't be so lucky this time around, not when I sent these bad boys right through your skull! **Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack!" **he expelled 7 ghosts from his mouth and sent them forward.

Majuub simply formed two Ki blades in his hand, and with a few swift movements he cut through each ghost with ease and let them detonate harmlessly.

"What the- How the fuck did you do that?!"

"It might sound strange, but I feel as if I've regained a part of myself that I never even knew was missing, but now that it's back… I feel like I'm a different person."

"What the hell are you talking about, what's this power?!"

Majuub didn't answer him, he just leapt back on top of a plateau and let out a primal roar as he spiked his aura, the force nearly blowing Gotenks clean off of his feet "You need to face the facts here Gotenks, not only are you fighting on the wrong side, but now that I've gained his new power and sense of who I am and what my purpose is, you just don't have a chance of defeating me anymore."

"Yeah well, I'll believe that when it actually happens! I've gotta admit though, it looks like you're sure as hell cooking now! I can feel the power your body is putting out from all the way down here! I don't know what this whole "sense of self" load of crap is about Uub, and frankly I don't care."

"I think that now that I'm like this, you should call me Majuub. It only makes sense."

"Yeah yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself. I've gotta give you credit though, you do make that look work, but on the other hand…" Gotenks floated up to meet Majuub at eye level, and with a furious roar he ascended to his highest level: Super Saiyan 3 "I don't care how much you try and power up, I won't be outdone by the likes of you or anyone! I'll just have to go ahead and up my own game too!" he let out a surge of power, blowing away entire mountains from the surrounding area "Yes! My power just keeps rising, it's totally out of this world! I have to admit, it's a real privelage to be able to serve the Tuffles if it means having power like this! Go ahead and power up more, I fucking dare you! It doesn't how much you power up, I'll push myself to those heights and leave you in the fucking dust!"

'_His power is incredible, his power might even surpass Baby now. but for some reason I don't feel scared or even nervous. If anything I feel kind of excited, excited to see how far this new power will take me. I guess Goku has rubbed off on me more than I realized._

"I can't get over how awesome this feels, I've got so much power coursing through my veins that I bet if I wanted, I could rip this entire galaxy apart with a single blast!"

"We'll see soon enough won't we?" Majuub's aura subsided as he slowly dropped into a combat stance identical to that of Goku.

"What, you're done already? You sure you don't want to try and power up more?"

"I'm fine for now, I think this is all the power that I need."

"You sure about that? Alright if you say so, but you're gonne regret it when I rip you apart piece by piece! **Galactic Donut!" **Gotenks hurled himself forward and fired forward a yellow ring of Ki.

Majuub ducked underneath the Galactic Donut and dealt Gotenks a swift kick to the gut, sending him hurtling into the air and causing the Galatic Donut to evaporate.

"Hey what the fuck was that, dodging like that is for a pathetic Saiyan!" Gotenks rebounded and aimed a kick at the back of Majuub's head.

Majuub simply ducked to avoid the kick and went on to avoid a rapid barrage of punches and kicks that followed '_This seems surreal, I can see every attack he's throwing so clearly.'_

"Are you trying to make a fool out of me?!"

"You're doing that to yourself by siding with Baby."

"Shut up! **Die Die Missile Barrage!" **Gotenks started blitzing around and firing a Die Die Missile Barrage from numerous directions.

Majuub dodged and weaved his way around every single blast with ease, sliding down the side of the plateau he was on as he did so and digging his ankles into the rock as he ducked to avoid a few more blasts.

Gotenks soared down to meet him at eye level, only to be sent flying away across the skies by a sudden shockwave and crashing through several plateaus, but then he quickly rebounded and landed on top of a plateau, where he barked out an arrogant laugh "You didn't really think that would hurt me did you? Your speed and reflexes have gotten a lot better sure, but your attacks as you are now lack the necessary punch to get the job done. Come on Majuub or whatever the hell I'm supposed to call you, don't disappoint me now. I figured you'd be able to do a lot better than that."

"Actually yeah, I can do much better than that now that I'm finally starting to get a grip on this newfound power of mine. Why don't I show you that firsthand?" his white aura spiked once again.

"Well it does look like you've turned it up another notch, but you still haven't shown me you can use this upgrade of yours to pack a decent enough punch. What, do you think this power up is supposed to scare me? All it really does is make me want to rip you apart, so you'd better prepare yourself."

"I'm fully prepared for this, so you'd better be ready yourself." on that note, Majuub suddenly blitzed behind Gotenks and started dealing him a rapid barrage of punches, and then he followed up with a kick that sent him crashing to the ground.

"There's no way that-" Gotenks rebounded just in time to block another strike from Majuub, the force creating a large shockwave.

"What's the matter Gotenks, is that all you've got for me?" he blitzed around another attack and dealt Gotenks a solid kick to the spine that sent him crashing through several plateaus, and he fired off a Full Power Energy Wave that sent Gotenks flying even further back and crashing into a mountain.

"DAMMIT!" Gotenks let out a surge of power in his rage that shattered the mountain that he had been buried in.

'_He's still standing even after all of that, his durability is a lot greater than I was expecting it to be. Still though, from what Goku told me Fusion wears off after a maximum of 30 minutes, and it decreases depending on how much power is used. Either his Fusion time gives out, his strength does or my strength does. The question is, which one will happen first?' _he spiked his aura one last time "I hope you're ready Gotenks, because I'm going to finish this right now!"

"You son of a… No way in hell that's happening, I'm nowhere near through yet!" with his rage pushing him forward, Gotenks's aura spiked even higher, the electricity surging around his body wildly.

'_His power is increasing to an entirely different level, that means that he's starting to make his last stand.'_

"If that's what you want then fine, I'm gonna throw every ounce of power I've got into this next attack!" Gotenks's golden aura surged even higher, releasing a barrage of laser-like beams made of his Ki in every direction, the sheer power cutting through through several of the surrounding mountains and carving into the ground.

'_So now he's resorting to this, now Gotenks's energy is radiating outwards in every possible direction as highly concentrated laser beams, as if he's trying out some last resort tactic against me. I guess my new power drove him to think that he either had to win now or risk losing against me altogether, he must have found and even greater level of power than Super Saiyan 3. There is no such conquering weapon as the necessity of conquering. Either way he's releasing it like some sort of fight or flight response, this could turn out to be a problem if I'm not careful.'_

"Now I'll see you in hell!" Gotenks fired forward a massive barrage of Ki blasts infused with some sort of crimson electricity.

Majuub blitzed forward and dodged every laser being fired at him, though a few of them ended up grazing his elbow and cutting off a few strands of his hair '_This isn't good, if one of those rays hits me head on then it could be the end for me. He's putting out so much energy though, is he planning to burn through all that he's got left to take me down? Either way I shouldn't let this drag out, I'd better end this with one attack.' _he leapt back onto the side of a mountain to dodge another laser, purple and pink Ki building in between his palms "**Ka…" **he dodged another laser and landed on a piece of rubble "**Me…" **he dodged more lasers by rebounding off of different pieces of rubble "**Ha…"**

Gotenks suddenly fired off a Die Die Missile Barrage in every direction.

Majuub blitzed through the attack and barely managed to avoid being hit "**Me…"**

"You're a quick little bastard I have to give you that much, but there's no way you can dodge in mid-air!" Gotenkts formed a Ki blast in each hand, one blue and one gold, and then cupped his hands at his side to combine them into one massive attack "Game over Uub, now you're through and I WIN! **Final… KAMEHAMEHA!" **with all the power he could, Gotenks fired forward a Final Kamehameha, pouring every ounce of Ki he had left into it.

'_Now's my chance!' _being sure to time it just right, Majuub used one foot to kick himself into the air, then used the blast he was charging to grind up the Final Kamehameha like it was some sort of wheel until he was right in front of Gotenks and held up the blast "I'm ending this right here and right now! **HAAAAAAA!" **and with that, Majuub promptly fired a full power Majin Kamehameha at Gotenks at point-blank range.

Gotenks could only scream in agony as he was sent hurtling into the air by the blast, resulting in a massive explosion that shook the entire surface of the planet. When the blast finally subsided and everything settled back down to an extent, and the forms of Goten and Trunks, both of them unconscious and heavily wounded, and they both hit the ground with a thud.

With the battle finally over, Majuub let out a sigh as he powered down and made his way over to where Goten and Trunks lay and slung both of them over his shoulder "I'm sorry I had to be so rough with you two, but I promise I'll get both of you fixed up right away." and so he blasted off still holding onto them.

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Pan's head snapped up at what she was sensing "Well that ended pretty fast."

"What do you mean?" asked Mr Satan "What's going on down there?"

"Well I can tell that Buu's Ki disappeared, Uub's changed somehow, and from what I can tell he was able to beat Trunks and Uncle Goten."

"But what about Buu?"

"I can answer that." this was when Majuub blitzed onto the scene with Trunks and Goten still slung over his shoulders, and he gently set them down on the ground "They should be okay, but for now they need the Sacred Water."

"I-I'm on it." so Mr Satan promptly gave both Trunks and Goten each a small amount of the Sacred Water, which caused them to groan in agony as the evil energy was cleansed from their bodies, and once it was done he looked up at Majuub "So, about Buu…"

"He showed up on the scene and saved me from that blast, but he got blown to pieces because of it. It felt strange, I felt as if he and I had met before. Buu told me that he and I were one in the same, and that it was time to become one again. The next thing I knew, our bodies had merged together, and now I'm like this."

"Oh… I see…" Mr Satan's face fell.

"Buu is a part of me now, and I promise that his sacrifice will never be forgotten." Majuub gave him a reassuring smile, but then his expression turned deadly serious "But this isn't over yet, not by a long shot."

"We still have to turn Papa back to normal." Pan noted, her tone somewhat grin "And before that we have to wait for Piccolo to defeat him, if he can."

"Have some faith Pan, Piccolo is far stronger than anyone gives him credit for. If there's anyone who can snap Gohan out of it, it's him. All we have to do is wait for that to happen, and then we take the fight to Baby himself."

"You think we'll be able to defeat him on our own?"

"We'll be damned if we don't try, but either way we can't expect Goku to swoop in and save us like he's done for all of you before."

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**The battle was long and hard, but in the end, Uub, the student of Son Goku was able to stand triumphant over the fusion of Gotenks, though it did not come without some sacrifice being necessary for his victory. However, despite this great victory, there is no rest for the weary given the situation. Three of Baby's heralds are down for the count, and now it is up to Piccolo to stand tall and bring Gohan down. Will he prevail? Find out next time on Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo's Counterattack!**

**A/N:**

**A second missed opportunity that GT missed out on, one that was actually teased at but never happened, was the apperance of adult Gotenks, and this time I'm going to be having him fight Uub, who then fuses with Buu to become Majuub in order to combat Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks' power. I'll be honest with all of you, I've never been a fan of the Fat Buu, like at all. Even in Z, I mostly found him annonying, although I did like his friendship with Mr Satan. His treatment in Super doesn't help to change my opinion, and that's part of why I decided to keep in his merge with Uub from canon, which I believe was supposed to wrap up his character arc, and I think it do so rather well.**

**As a little sidenote, yes I decided to have Uub know the Kaioken, but he can only push it about as far as 3x. Keep in mind that he did spend about five years training with Goku, so I wouldn't be surprised if he know it. Of course, it wasn't enough to compete with Gotenks as a Super Saiyan 2, which led to him fusing with Buu to become Majuub. Also, if Vegito could use a Final Kamehameha then I don't see any reason as to why Gotenks shouldn't be able to as well, and I think it made for one hell of an exciting climax to this chapter.**


	5. Master & Student Clash, Piccolo vs Gohan

**Guest: **Yeah, I'm taking the time to work on some of my other stories. But for future reference, please don't review just to ask when other updates will come out, I hate it when people do that sort of thing.

**SSJGogeta729024: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you like it so much. Yeah, Adult Gotenks was a major missed opportunity. As for whether or not we'll see him again in this story, I haven't decided yet. Yeah, GT definitely did have a lot of things going against it, it's definitely the weakest series of the Dragon Ball franchise. I'm glad you think I'm doing the rebellion team going against Baby well. As interesting as the idea sounds, I already decided that I'm not going to be doing the Super 17 or Shadow Dragon sagas. As for the possibility of Gohan going Super Saiyan 4, well we'll just have to wait and see. Even if I do incorporate it in some way, it won't be in the traditional sense like Goku or Vegeta. We'll see soon enough.

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Things were progressing very slowly on the Sacred World of the Kais.

Old Kai and Kibito Kai were still trying to pull out Goku's tail, only for this process to suddenly be interrupted when Goku sensed something strange happening, and he looked over at the crystal ball just in time to see the newly merged form of Majuub triumph over Gotenks.

After seeing this, Old Kai then had Goku tied to a rock so that he couldn't move, and then they resumed with pulling out his tail.

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The battle against Baby's herald was about to reach its climax.

Piccolo glanced out into the distance, and he gave a small smile '_So Bulla is down for the count, and now so are Goten and Trunks. Pan and Uub both won, but it looks like one of them did so at a price. Buu is gone. Still, his sacrifice was a noble won. Good job you two, I know Goku would be proud to see how much you've grown.' _then his expression hardened '_But this fight isn't over yet, not by a long shot.' _he turned to face his opponent "So that's two battles down now, and that means it's just us left."

"I guess so." Gohan's expression appeared to be one of remorse and sadness, along with a small bit of confliction "I don't suppose there was any way that I could talk you out of this?"

"No there isn't, and I'm guessing that goes both ways."

"So it would seem, but I really don't want to have to fight you Piccolo. Don't make me do this, I promise you everything is going to work out. I hated the thought of joining Lord Baby as well, but he proved to be that I was wrong. Being part of a united force like this feels unlike anything I've ever felt before. It feels good now, but having you and Pan and the others is going to make it perfect. We would be the ultimate force of Tuffle justice, and I want you to be part of it."

"If you know anything about me Gohan, then you know that I don't turn away from what I believe in. There are times when he have to look beyond what we want and do what we believe to be for the best. You know this because I've been by your side for so long, and I've seen how you've matured over the years."

"Yeah, almost all of that I have to contribute to you."

"Perhaps, but that goes both ways. You've become a truly great warrior Gohan, and yet despite that you've remained humble. I was taught by you that power is nothing if it isn't guided by love and compassion. Watching you grow has helped me to grow as well Gohan, and that's why I'm here now, standing the shoes once filled by you and your father, fighting to save the Earth and her people from themselves."

"...I see. So I guess I don't have a choice then." Gohan let a single tear fall down his cheek "I'm sorry it had to come to this."

"So am I Gohan, so am I. But at the very least, I can give you this. **Clothes Beam!" **with a quick flash of his fingertip, Piccolo engulfed Gohan in an identical copy of his purple gi, without the weighted cape and turban "That's the least I can do for you. After all, if we have to fight then we might as well do it properly, which is also why I want you to come at me with all the power you have at your disposal."

"I understand. You deserve that much at least." Gohan flared his aura, and with a quick yet primal sounding roar, he ascended to his highest level: Super Saiyan 2, with the golden hair standing on end and the aura crackling with bio-electricity "This is it Piccolo, this is as high as I can go at the moment."

"...Is that right? Well then I guess I'll just have to change that, and in the meantime I'll show you just how strong _I've _become since this whole ordeal started." Piccolo dropped into a stance and gritted his teeth, and then let out a furious roar and shockwave, the sheer force shaking the entire planet. When everything died down, Piccolo revealed himself, his upper body having bulked up slightly while crackling with white electricity "So now you see for yourself, you're not the only one whose gotten stronger. Now is where the real fight begins."

"I can see that." Gohan slowly dropped into a stance '_I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, his power has increased so dramatically it's almost like he's a different person, and judging by what I'm sensing from him, he's had his full potential awakened by the Old Kai as well. The question is though, is it going to be enough or will it prove too much for me to handle? I guess there's only one way to find out. _Come on Piccolo, show me exactly what this new power of yours is capable of."

"I intend to." with a green flash, Piccolo blitzed right past Gohan with ease, leaving a shallow cut on his cheek, the force of his aura also incinerating part of the mountain in front of him '_It does seem strange, but even now it feels like my body hasn't fully adapted the new power that was awakened by the Old Kai, but it does feel incredible. For all we know, this power might be what we need to turn the tide of this battle.'_

"I hope you're not letting that increase in power make you conceited!" Gohan spiked his aura and burst towards Piccolo at full speed.

Piccolo was forced on the defensive, but he was very effective with it, as he dodged, blocked and weaved his way around every attack with ease, and once he found an opening he dealt Gohan a swift kick to the chest.

"**MASENKO!" **Gohan stopped himself, then burst up into the air and fired a Masenko blast downwards.

Piccolo calmly fired an Explosive Demon Wave at the Masenko, tearing through the blast with obvious ease.

"Cancelling out one attack isn't going to be enough!" Gohan burst down towards the ground and charged at Piccolo, leading the two of them to trade even blows, though he was quickly pushed back by a knee to the gut, an uppercut to the jaw and a kick to the neck, so he retaliated by firing off a Gekiretsu Madan barrage.

Piccolo dodged and weaved his way around each blast with a series of backflips and rolls, and then he made his way through the exlposions to confront Gohan himself, resulting in the two of them once again trading blows.

Gohan now found himself forced on the defensive and evasive, but once he was blown back a short distance he rebounded and tried to fire a a Masenko at point blank range.

Piccolo stopped this attack with one hand, then blitzed around Gohan and dealt him an elbow to the back of the neck, a kick to the spine, and then just as Gohan turned around, Piccolo hit him at point blank range with an Explosive Demon Wave, the force proving to be enough to send him flying straight through a nearby mountain and out the other side.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

"Yes!" Pan pumped a fist at the sight of Piccolo and Gohan's battle "Looks like Piccolo has the upper hand for now, that means all he has to do is beat Papa and then we can use the Sacred Water to turn him back to normal."

"Easy Pan, don't assume the fight is over just yet." Majuub told her "Gohan isn't the kind of person who would go down very easily, regardless of whatever side he might be on."

"I know, but I truly believe that Piccolo can and will save him."

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Meanwhile, back with the main battle…

Piccolo leapt back a short distance and dropped back into his stance "You can go ahead and show yourself Gohan, I know for a fact that that's nowhere near enough to stop you."

Sure enough, the mountain suddenly exploded and Gohan emerged from within the rubble, revealing his new gi slightly torn, revealing half of his bare torso, and he was panting somewhat heavily as he spat out some blood "I shouldn't be surprised that you're able to overpower a form like that so easily. But with that being said, don't think that I'm going to let you win as easily as that."

"I never imagined that you would, but your body tells a different story, not to mention what you've got inside. You've always been strong Gohan, but you just might lack the heart of a true warrior. You've never been too good at closing the deal. I remember this all too well from back when you fought against Buu, after the Old Kai drew out your power. You were overcome by a different feeling, arrogance. You had struggled for so long to unlock your potential that when you did, you enjoyed it too much. Instead of using your strength to win, your arrogance left you open to be attacked, and you're doing that even now. It doesn't matter how much power you may possess, if you succumb to your arrogance or ideals. If you're going to be a warrior, whether with us or Baby, then do it right."

"...You're right Piccolo, I know that for a fact. This time I'm not holding back." so with a primal roar, Gohan flashed back into Super Saiyan 2, but his aura kept surging higher and higher "Don't think this is my limit, you're going to see something even greater, something that can surpass any form of Super Saiyan!" the color of his hair started flickering from gold to black, and then back to gold "I'm going to show you the fighter that I truly am!" and with a primal roar, he was engulfed in a massive white light that shone so brightly, it easily blew away the clouds gathering above them. When the light subsided, it revealed Gohan where he once was, only now his aura had turned a milky white color and his hair back to its regular shade of black, but with a single bang falling down in front of his face "Well how about it Piccolo, your awakened power against mine."

"Looks like I'm not the only one who's been busy since Baby showed up."

"Far from it, I knew that this power would come in handy at some point, so I've been training and meditating for days on end, preparing for when I would be able to finally awaken this power once again, and seeing you again face to face was the final push that I needed to unleash it in all of its glory."

"Spare me the flattery Gohan, now let's do this."

"Right, I know." so Gohan burst forward and let a fist fly, resulting in the two of them trading even blows across the battlefield, which ended with his fist being caught by Piccolo, the force releasing a sizeable shockwave "It doesn't matter how high I have to climb, I'm going to do whatever it takes!" he released a Masenko from his hand, the explosion sending Piccolo flying back a short distance, so Gohan then followed up with a second Masenko.

Piccolo leapt above the blast and landed on top of a plateau, only to be forced to block the incoming barage of Gekiretsu Madan blasts that followed.

"I've got you!" Gohan suddenly blitzed above him and fired an Explosive Demon Wave from his hand.

"**Special Beam Cannon!" **Piccolo quickly fired a Special Beam Cannon directly towards the Explosive Demon Wave, resulting in a quick yet powerful beam struggle, but the Special Beam Cannon lost out and was engulfed by the Explosive Demon Wave '_Dammit!'_

"It's over!" Gohan poured more power into his Explosive Demon Wave, engulfing Piccolo in the massive explosion that followed as a result, resulting in a tense silence that lasted only for a moment.

The smoke was suddenly evaporated into nothing as Piccolo burst upwards from within the smoking crater and charged at Gohan, resulting in the two of them blitzing across the battlefield at full speed, which ended with the two of them kicking each other square in the face and grappling in a power struggle "Did you think that would be enough?"

"You're still holding on even after all of that, I always knew that you would never go down so easily, but you're truly excelling yourself."

"I don't do anything half-assed, and don't think I'm giving up in this fight."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

"Nor should you." Piccolo ended the power struggle when he dealt Gohan a kick to the chest, only to be met with one of his own that sent him skidding back, but he fired an Explosive Demon Wave as he did so.

"**Masenko!" **Gohan fired off a one-handed Masenko and cancelled out the Explosive Demon Wave, the force sending Piccolo flying and allowing Gohan to deal him a smash attack to the spine that sent him hurtling downwards, and then Gohan followed up with a Masenko he fired off at Piccolo's black, the force accelerating his descent and sending him crashing to the ground in a powerful explosion.

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Pan and Majuub were left looking horrified by what they were seeing, that being Piccolo lying on the ground in what looked like a scorched heap, missing both an arm and a leg "Piccolo come on, you have to get up! Every single time it's mattered, now matter how hopeless it might seem, you've always found a way to stand tall and proud, and it's never mattered more than it does now! We believe in you, you're the one who can stop Papa now, we know it! You just have to dig deep, show us what a true Namekian warrior is capable of, and get the hell up!"

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"You just have to dig deep, show us what a true Namekian warrior is capable of, and get the hell up!"

'_I know… I have to get up…' _Piccolo slowly but surely was able to pull himself back to his feet, and he regenerated his lost limbs as he did so.

Gohan's gaze hardened as his milky white aura spiked even higher "So I guess I was wrong to assume that you didn't have any stamina left."

"You're right about that Gohan, because this fight isn't over yet, not by a long shot."

"I didn't expect it to be, you continue to stand no matter how many times you fall, just like you taught me to do."

"It's no wonder why, I have people depending on me. It's not many people since Baby took over, but Pan, Uub, hell even Mr Satan, they're all depending on me to see this through, and so I have to keep going, so if I do give up then I'd betray the trust they've been putting in me, and there's no way in hell I'm letting them down!" he spiked his milky white aura.

"I can't let you see it through, your ideals may be strong but they mean nothing, not in the face of the honorable Lord Baby and his Tuffle empire!" the two of them charged forward to continue the battle.

"You say that they don't mean anything, but I'm going to remind you of how wrong that is, and why that's the case!" Piccolo blitzed around every attack Gohan threw at him with ease and began launching multiple counterstrikes in the process.

"Your speed has increased, you're even faster than you were before! How is that possible? How are you growing stronger as we fight?"

"I thought that would be obvious to you. The reason I'm able to push myself to these heights is because I'm fighting for something other than myself, I'm fighting for all of you, and that's the biggest difference between us and Baby. You know I'm right too. Behind every single strike we throw is an entire community of people who have grown alongside us, helping us to grow stronger over a lifetime of challenges any normal person would never even dream of! Each one of them has been crucial, whether it be friends or family, allies or rivals, they inspire us and push us forward, driving us to better ourselves. None of us could imagine for even a second that the levels we're at now, we reached by ourselves. We owe that optimism and righteousness to the likes of you and your father, and you've pushed all of us forward and shaped us into the people that we are today, for better or for worse. A lot of us had started out as your enemies, and I'm no exception to that fact, because from the moment I was born, I was hostile and misguided, but you earned my trust and respect, even my friendship, and you were able to show me that there was a different way. Even as you fight your opponents, you have a unique way of drawing them in, and that's just the kind of people that you and Goku are. Or rather, it's who you used to be Gohan, and that's because Baby has made you lose sight of those ideals!"

"You're wrong, he showed me the true way!" Gohan continued launching a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Piccolo dodged, blocked and weaved his way around every attack with ease, though eventually he was met with a kick to the jaw that sent him hurtling to the ground, but he was able to rebound before he was hit by Gohan's follow-up attack, and he fired a stray Ki blast.

Gohan deflected the Ki blast with ease, as well as dodging and deflecting the numerous blasts that followed "What are you trying to do exactly? This isn't your usual style of attack."

"That's where you're wrong."

"Wait what?" Gohan whipped around and found the numerous Ki blasts simply floating around him, leading him to realize his mistake '_Dammit, that means he's going to-'_

"I thought you knew me better than that Gohan, but I guess being turned into a Tuffle has dulled your awareness to an extent. Looks like you're out of tricks, so I guess that means this fight is over! **Hellzone Grenade!" **with a wave of his arms, Piccolo started sending the Ki blasts swarming towards their target.

Gohan could do little more than try to shield himself as the blasts closed in, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

"I think the best way to describe it is, this is the power that comes from conviction."

"Conviction, huh?" the smoke cleared to reveal Gohan's current condition, badly wounded and his gi practically shredded, but he was still alive and still ready and raring to fight "I know fully well that conviction gives someone true strength… you taught me that… But to accept that fighting for Saiyans is what gives you the power you have now… that denies all that my current self stands for… I may wish to believe in such a thing… but no matter how much I may want to… I can't… bring myself to… not as long as I serve Lord Baby… As long as I'm part of the new Tuffle empire he's building… I can't believe in it… the Tuffles stand to eliminate anything and everything that Saiyans stand for… as long as I'm one of them, I can't…"

"Gohan… Fine, I'll go ahead and end this, and free you from that dilemma." Piccolo dropped into a stance as his aura surged "I can't pretend that I have the power or the resolve to end this and any other threat like you and Goku do, but at the very least, I should be able to end your suffering!" so with his aura blazing like never before, Piccolo surged forward at his maximum speed and slammed his fist into Gohan's face, his eyes blazing with determination and rage, and then he surged around and followed up with an uppercut kick that sent him flying high into the skies of the Tuffle Planet.

Gohan spiked his aura and unleashed multipled waves of Ki that hurtled across the battlefield in multiple directions.

Piccolo used small concentrated Ki blasts to propel himself along the waves of Ki, but stopped when he and Gohan collided fists, blitzing across the skies of the planet and taking their clash down the side of a mountain until the two of them broke away '_I can't drag this out any longer than I already have, if I'm going to end this then now's the time! Lucky for me I've still got my trump card!' _he charged forward in an attempt to end the battle.

"**Special Beam CANNON!" **Gohan held up two fingers to his forehead and fired forward a medium-sized Special Beam Cannon.

Piccolo dove underneath the Special Beam Cannon, blitzed in front of Gohan and dealt him a sharp uppercut to the jaw that sent him flying "You fought hard Gohan, but this battle ends right here and right now!" he slammed his hands together and began charging a ball of Ki in between his palms, his aura flaring wildly as he did so "**LIGHT GRENADE!" **using every ounce of Ki he could muster, Piccolo fired his ultimate attack forward at full speed, engulfing Gohan and sending him hurtling down towards the ground below.

Gohan could only scream in pain and agony as he was sent hurtling downwards by the blast, leaving him to be engulfed in the massive explosion that followed.

With the battle appearing to be over, Piccolo powered down from his Ultimate form and let out a loud sigh of relief '_I shouldn't be surprised, even when he doesn't bother to train for about half a decade, he still knows how to put up a much better fight than I predicted.'_

Gohan spat out some blood and slowly lifted his head to meet Piccolo's gaze "Well… you were right… you won… go ahead… finish me…"

"You know me well enough to know that I'm not going to do that Gohan."

"Please… just do it… I tried to kill my daughter… and I had a hand in the death of my own father… and I even tried to kill you today… Even if you don't kill me… Lord Baby will… for my failure…"

"How about we save that for another day? I can assure you of this, there's no way you're going to die today, by my hand or any other." Piccolo then picked up Gohan in his arms "But for the time being, we'll focus on turning you back to normal and freeing you from Baby's control once and for all." and so he promptly blitzed away from the scene using his Instantaneous Movement.

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Majuub looked up at what he was sensing "That ended faster than I was expecting, but I am glad it's over."

"You can sense it?" asked Pan "They started fighting each other out there, but I couldn't follow it after Piccolo got back up."

"Not surprising, I found it pretty difficult myself at a few points here and there. The battle is definitely over though, and from what I can tell, Piccolo won, though it wasn't an easy fight for him."

"So Piccolo's okay, that's good. But what about Papa, is he…?"

"See for yourself." this was when Piccolo blitzed onto the scene through use of his Instantaneous Movement and set Gohan down on the ground.

"Papa!"

"I had to go all out to stop him, but now we can cure him."

"Oh… So he'll be back to normal soon? Good."

"Pan… my child…" Gohan looked up at her and reached out one arm as he gently caressed her face, a single tear falling down his cheek "I'm sorry… Alright Piccolo, do it… I'm ready…"

"Papa…"

"This will be excrutiating for you, but I need you to swallow." Piccolo was promptly handed the Sacred Water by Mr Satan and poured some of it down Gohan's throat, causing him to scream in pain and agony as the Sacrec Water took effect, cleansing his body of any and all evil energy caused by Baby's influence.

"Is he…?"

"He needs some time to recover, but he should be alright. Pan, I want you and Mr Satan to keep watch over him and the others for the time being. Majuub, you're with me, so we'd better get moving."

"What are the two of you going to do?"

"The only thing we can do, Majuub and I will take the fight to Baby himself, two on one, and we'll go from there."

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The progress being made in pulling out Goku's tail had slowed to a simple crawl.

Still tied to a rock, Goku had finally found a way to pull out his tail all the way and get there in time to help the others. This plan just so happened to involve having Old Kai be tied to the rock in place of Goku, while he powered up and flew upwards, allowing his tail to be pulled out all the way.

Now that his tail had been pulled out all the way, Goku was taken by Kibito Kai to the Tuffle Planet, and then the group would take the fight to Baby himself…

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**The battle was fierce, and both combatants sustained a great deal of pain and injury, but in the end, Piccolo was able to stand tall and bring Gohan down, showing him the might of the ultimate Namekian warrior. With this victory, the last of Baby's heralds have all fallen at the hands of the Z-fighters, and now all that's left is to vanquish Baby himself. Anticipating this, Piccolo and Majuub race to his location to face him head on, and at the same time, Goku is now ready to spring back into action, and is heading to the Tuffle Planet. With these three great warriors ready for action, the final battle against the Tuffle forces is about to begin, next time on Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo's Counterattack!**

**A/N:**

**One of the things I was looking forward to when writing this fic was the showdown between Piccolo and Gohan, a Master vs Student showdown, which I thought was a serious missed opportunity for the series. Plus it gives me the chance to give Piccolo some much needed love, and it gives me a way to give Gohan back his Ultimate form, which he will sorely need considering what's to come, and which was one of the many, MANY things GT was lacking, at least in my opinion.**

**At the same time, we're getting closer to Goku finally returning to action, which will lead into one of my favorite transformations of the entire franchise overall: Super Saiyan 4, in all of its primal glory. Like I said before, while I do prefer Super over GT a great deal, I won't deny that Super Saiyan 4 is a far better transformation than Super Saiyan Blue. As for Goku's involvement I know I said that this fic was mainly about giving characters other than Goku some time to shine, but I think I've done that quite well up until now, and just because Goku's here doesn't mean he's the only one who's going to have a part in defeating Baby himself. I'm going to make sure of that no matter what.**


	6. Goku's Return, a Primal Ascension

**Guest: **Yeah, and frankly I think Super Saiyan 4 makes a lot more sense.

**SSJGogeta729024: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked the chapter so much. Yeah, the fight between Piccolo and Gohan was a lot of fun to write out. Piccolo isn't the kind of person to hold back in a fight, not even against Gohan, though he wouldn't kill Gohan under any circumstances, even if he was brainwashed by Baby. Yes, now Goku is making his way to the battlefield to join up with Piccolo and the others. As for making Super Saiyan 3 look good against Baby, well I'm going to try my best and see how it turns out. Also, I'm glad to see you share my opinion on Super Saiyan 4 being better than Super Saiyan Blue.

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The battle on Planet Tuffle had reached a ceasefire, if only for a few fleating moments.

Baby stood atop his tower, glaring down at the forms of his so-called followers with a scowl plastered across his face, and he let out a scoff "To think that even Gohan should be defeated by the likes of these rebellious fools. It's so disgraceful, but then again I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by such an outcome. Nor should I be surprised by the appearance of you two." he then turned around to see who was standing before him.

As it turns out, it was Piccolo and Majuub standing before him, both of them dropped into combat stances and ready to fight "I take it you were expecting us."

"The most powerful of my followers were defeated without too much difficulty, it only makes sense that your next move would be to try and face me in battle next. I suppose I should commend you both, defeating the likes of both Gohan and Gotenks is no small feat, even if they did turn out to be utter disappointments. As a reward, I'm going to show you something, the power of a true Tuffle warrior!" and so his black aura surged wildly around his body, the sheer power it was generating shaking the entire planet with its magnitude "So now do you see, do you see what I'm capable of?"

"Are we supposed to be intimidated?"

"Piccolo is right." Majuub's gaze hardened considerably "Anyone should be able to see the amount of power you have at your disposal, but that doesn't mean that you're the most unstoppable force in this universe."

"And when the dust settles, you're not going to live to see another sunrise. We're going to make sure of it."

"I hope you're ready Baby, because here we come!" both of them started flaring their auras as high as they could go, with Piccolo also tapping into the power of his Ultimate form at the same time.

Baby's gaze hardened as he watched them power up '_With that new power of his, Piccolo is tapping into all of the energy he has at his disposal, and I suppose he's hoping it's going to be enough.' _then his gaze fixated on Majuub '_This one though, he's far from being like any ordinary human. From what I can tell, between him and Piccolo he's the stronger of the two, though only by a certain extent.'_

"I gave my word to Goku… I would use what he taught me… I would use it to put things right, no matter the cost… and I will!" Majuub's body bulked up slightly as his aura surged even higher than before. With that, they both finished powering up and started slowly walking towards their opponent.

'_As I expected. _So be it then, come at me."

"As if you had to ask!" so the two of them charged forward.

Baby spiked his aura again just in time to be hit by a combined Ki blast by Majuub and Piccolo, forcing him to block it as he was sent crashing through his tower, though he rebounded in a matter of seconds "So it would seem that both of them have increased their attack power."

"That's nothing, wait until you see this! **Lightning Arrow!" **Majuub fired forward a rapid barrage of Ki blasts.

"Am I supposed to be impressed by such a display of foolishness?" Baby wasted no time in dodging the Ki blasts with ease, only to see them change direction and combine with each other into the form of a massive golden tornado that then attacked him by firing a Super Kamehameha wave at full power "**Super Galick Gun!" **so he fired a Super Galick Gun in order to counter the Super Kamehameha "How pitiful, do you really expect me to fall for a tactic like that?"

"No, I expect you to fall for a tactic like this!"

"What?" Baby glanced back and his eyes widened at what he was seeing '_So then they planned for- Dammit!'_

As it turns out, Piccolo was floating directly behind Baby, with two fingers charging and blazing with his Ki "Sorry to keep you waiting, I hope you're ready for what's about to come next. This fight ends now! **Special Beam Cannon!" **he fired a full power Special Beam Cannon directly towards Baby's back.

Baby was forced to break off his Super Galick Gun and leapt out of the way just in time to avoid the Super Kamehameha, but he was still pierced through the shoulder by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, and he spat out some blood as a result '_Dammit!'_

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Meanwhile, with the hero of the franchise…

By this point, Kibito Kai and Goku had finally touched down on the Tuffle Planet "Alright here we are, welcome to Planet Plant."

"It's a lot more barren than I was expetcing." Goku noted, then glanced around "Good thing we didn't get here too late, I can still sense Pan and the others."

"Are they alright?"

"From what I can tell, yeah they're fine. I can sense Mr Satan and Pan in one direction over there, along with Gohan and a few others, but they're unconscious. Piccolo and Uub I can sense in another direction, and Baby is there too. I think we can handle it from here Kibito Kai, but there's one last thing I need you to do for me." he pulled out something from his gi and handed it to Kibito Kai: a Dragon Radar.

"I thought you said that robot you found on Imecka absorbed the Dragon Radar."

"He did, but Bulma told me she had a backup stored away in Capsule Corp, just in case anything happened to the original. I would've brought it up with Pan and Trunks, but since it was technically still working I didn't really see any need to. But anyway, since Giru is out of action, I think it's safe to say we need it now."

"And that's why we had to stop at Capsule Corp before coming here, but what are we going to do with it?"

"I can't use Instant Transmission as I am right now, but you still have your Instantaneous Movement going for you."

"You want me to travel to New Namek and use their Dragon Balls to return all of Baby's victims to normal, and maybe turn you back to your adult form as well?"

"I think we should wait to do that until after we defeat Baby, but in the meantime I was thinking that you could use that and head out to track down the Black Star Dragon Balls. Keep in mind it's been almost a full year since the Black Star Dragon Balls were used by Pilaf and his friends to turn me back into a kid, my guess is we've got only a few weeks before the Earth gets blown up because of it."

"But I thought you and the others brought the balls back to Earth."

"We did and we gave them to Dende and Mr Popo, they must have been under Baby's control like everyone else. My guess is that Baby used them to create this planet, and now they're scattered throughout the galaxy again. I know this is a lot to ask Kibito Kai, especially after all you've done for me, but-"

"Goku it's alright, I understand. After all, you and your friends have saved the universe time and again, so this is the least I can do to repay you. Just make sure that Baby doesn't spread his infection any further than he already has."

"Right, thank you Kibito Kai, and good luck."

"You as well my friend." and on that note, Kibito Kai disappeared from the Tuffle Planet using his Instantaneous Movement, taking the Dragon Radar with him.

Now alone, Goku looked down at himself and took a moment to get a grip on exactly what he was feeling '_So this is what it's like to have my tail back? It feels like I'm having a hard time keeping my balance, but at the same time it does feel kind of nostalgiac. Plus I do feel stronger than I'm used to, like there's some kind of primal power hidden deep inside me just waiting to be tapped into. I have to admit the sensation does feel pretty good, I just wish I had some time to stop and enjoy it, but I don't. Pan! Uub! Piccolo! I'm sorry I took so long, but I'm coming right now, so just hang in there.' _he looked around the planet to get a more specific feel for where each Ki signature was located '_Okay, from what I can sense, Uub and Piccolo are fighting Baby right now, and they're not too far from here. Try to hang on just a little bit longer you guys, I promise I'm on my way!' _and on that note, he blasted off across the skies of Planet Tuffle as fast as he could.

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Meanwhile, with the battle…

Majuub and Piccolo broke away from their clash with Baby, both panting slightly "It's hard to believe how strong he really is. I mean he has a hole in his shoulder, and he's still fighting off both of us as if he's still at full power."

"He must have more resilience than we were anticipating." Piccolo noted "But with the two of us working together against him, he won't be able to hold out forever. Keep in mind that it's up to the both of us right now, so if we can't defeat Baby, then who else will be able to stop him from taking control of the entire universe?"

"I think I have the answer to that question."

Piccolo and Majuub looked up, and their eyes widened "Goku?"

Sure enough, Goku dropped down onto the scene in a flash, his golden Super Saiyan aura flaring wildly, and he turned around to face them "So it looks like I was right, those two huge power levels fighting against Baby, it really was you guys wasn't it Uub, Piccolo?"

"That's right, and you're late. If you're going to swoop in and save the day, at least have the decency to show up on time. I thought you would've learned that by now."

"Sorry, but I've been pretty busy off-world getting something ready."

"So you're okay now?" asked Majuub "I mean Piccolo and I both felt your Ki disappear, we thought that you were dead."

"I would've been if it wasn't for the help of Old Kai and Kibito Kai, but that's all in the past. I think it's time for us to focus on the here and now. Where are the others?"

"Pan and Mr Satan are watching them, they're fine."

"Yeah I could tell that much, I just wanted to make sure. I've really gotta give you guys credit for fighting as hard and as long as you did, but you've done enough now. Just leave the rest to me, I'll be sure to take care of Baby myself."

"You can't be serious!" Piccolo rounded on him "Goku that's absolutely ridiculous, last time you fought him you barely got out alive, we actually thought you didn't, and now you want us to let you fight him all by yourself?"

"Yeah I do Piccolo, and keep in mind that I wouldn't be doing it like this if I didn't think I could handle it. I'll be fine, so you guys just get back to Pan and the others and keep them safe, just in case." and without leaving any room for objection, Goku started walking forward for the battle that was about to begin.

Baby stood in front of Goku calm as can be, not even bothering to get into a stance "So Goku, it seems you're still alive after all."

"You'd better believe I am." Goku dropped into his signature combat stance "And I don't care how many times it might take me, I'm gonna keep coming back until I get rid of you once and for all."

"Well well, it seems you're more resilient than I was expecting. Feel free to continue wasting all of your time and energy, because I'm personally starting to enjoy the concept of beating a filthy Saiyan like you within an inch of your life."

"Not this time Baby, I'll have you know that I've gone through a few changes since the last time we faced each other."

"Whatever you try doesn't amount to anything Goku, there's nothing you or any of the others can do to hold off my victory."

"Yeah well, I beg to differ. Just take a look and see for yourself." Goku jerked a thumb at where his tail now was behind his back.

"So you have a tail? What next, are you going to start flinging your monkey droppings in my direction?"

"Don't think that thought hasn't crossed my mind, but I promise you're going to like this one a lot more." with a furious roar, Goku's golden aura exploded in a column of light. When the light subsided, there he stood in his Super Saiyan 3 form, his golden hair extending down his back and his body crackling with electricity "I think it's about time for us to get this party started!"

"Don't think you're going to get this one all to yourself." Piccolo and Majuub both stepped forward, flaring their milky white auras even higher with every step.

"I thought I said for you guys to go back and join Pan and the others."

"You say that like I've ever taken orders from you. This is the kind of enemy where we can't take any chances, the best chance we have of defeating him is working together."

"...Alright I guess you've got a point. You know it's kind of nostalgiac, when was the last time you and me teamed up against an enemy."

"Probably when your sadistic bastard of an older brother showed up and kidnapped your son all those years ago."

"And to think so much has happened since then. Come on then you guys, let's show him why you don't mess with Earth."

"Oh please." Baby let out a scoff "You think just having a tail like any other filthy Saiyan ape is going to give you any sort of edge against me?"

"We'll see about that!" Goku spiked his Super Saiyan 3 aura and charged forward as he started his assault against Baby with a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

"You pathetic fool." Baby sidestepped Goku's attack and dealt him a kick that sent him flying backwards a great distance

"Dammit, come on let's go!" Piccolo and Majuub spiked their auras and started their own assault at full speed.

Baby was quickly forced on the defensive as he dodged and blocked most of their attacks, albeit with some visible difficulty "You little- I'm going to see to it that you all pay for your insolence in defying me!" he dealt Majuub a sharp kick that sent him flying into a plateau.

"If anyone's gonna pay it's you bastard!" Piccolo quickly attacked Baby by firin an Explosive Demon Wave.

"Let's see how you like this one!" Goku flared his Super Saiyan 3 aura as he blitzed back onto the scene and fired a full power True Kamehameha.

"I'm not out of this either!" Majuub blitzed onto the scene and quickly fired forward his own Majin Kamehameha.

"**Big Bang Attack!" **Baby fired off a Big Bang Attack from each hand, cancelling out two of the three attacks, though he was forced to block against Piccolo's Explosive Demon Wave, leaving him to be engulfed in the explosion that followed. When the smoke cleared, he immediately fired another Big Bang Attack at Piccolo.

"Dammit, Piccolo get down!" Goku suddenly kicked Piccolo out of the way and took the Big Bang Attack himself, sending him flying into a nearby mountain.

"Don't think I'm so helpless that I can't take of myself Goku, not with a pathetic attack like that one!" Piccolo quickly charged and fired an Explosive Demon Wave at Baby.

"**Super Galick Gun!" **Baby fired a Super Galick Gun just powerful enough to cancel out the Explosive Demon Wave, only to find himself on the defensive from a rapid barrage of punches and kicks from Piccolo, but as he did so he looked back to see Majuub coming right at him from behind '_Dammit, so he's a decoy?!'_

"What the hell are you looking at?!" Piccolo dealt Baby a spin kick that sent him flying into a plateau.

Baby rebounded just in time to fend off a barrage of attacks from Majuub, but he dealt him a well timed kick that sent him flying backwards a short distance.

"We're not done yet! **Light GRENADE!" **Piccolo soared towards Baby at full speed and fired forward a powerful Light Grenade blast, engulfing Baby in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, Baby was still alive but had received some noticeable burns across his body from the blast "I should commend you for this Namekian, with power like this at your disposal I can see how you were able to defeat Gohan with so little difficulty. But don't think that's going to be anywhere near enough for you to defeat me!" he blitzed forward and fired a Big Bang Attack at Piccolo at point blank range, causing him to cough up blood and sending him tumbling backwards a great distance.

"Piccolo no! **Lightning Arrow!" **Majuub fired forward a rapid barrage of Ki blasts that combined together to form a large golden tornado, which then attacked him by firing forward a massive Majin Kamehameha blast.

"**Super Galick GUN!" **Baby fired upwards a Super Galick Gun powerful enough to cancel out the Majin Kamehameha, the force of the beam struggle sending both of them skidding backwards as a result.

Majuub was the first one to stop himself as he wiped some blood from his lip '_To think he was able to counter every strike we throw at him, and that's after Piccolo pierced through his shoulder with a Special Beam Cannon. This is unbelievable, he must be adapting to our fighting styles and techniques the longer the battle drags on.'_

Baby started walking forward in order to continue his assault against Majuub, only to stop when he noticed something "You!"

As it turns out, it was Goku standing behind him, having grabbed him by the shoulder using his tail of all things "Hey there, I bet you forgot about me didn't you? Well I didn't forget about you, in fact I've got something for you!" he fired at Baby at point blank range with a full power True Kamehameha, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

Majuub pulled himself back to his feet and looked on in horror "Goku no!"

The smoke cleared slightly to reveal Goku lodged into the side of a plateau, forced back to his Super Saiyan 2 form as he spat out some blood "You know… in retrospect… maybe blasting myself… to get him… wasn't the best idea…"

However, the smoke cleared to reveal Baby wasn't unscathed by the blast, and his armor had been damaged considerably as a result "You little…"

"But then again, it is pretty reassuring knowing that you can be hurt."

"I'm going to make you suffer for this!" Baby tried to attack Goku in a rage, only to be forced on the defensive by a rapid barrage of attacks.

Goku retreated back a short distance to meet up with Majuub "Well that turned out to be pretty insane all things considered."

"It looked that way too, are you okay?" asked Majuub.

"All things considered, more or less."

"I can see that being turned into a kid again hasn't had an effect on your ability to fight, and thanks to that attack you landed we might have a new strategy going for us." this was when they were joined by Piccolo.

"I think I know what you mean, if we launch huge attacks like that while his defences are down then we should actually be able to do some serious damage."

"Right, maybe if we use some combination attacks to create an opening and then hit him with even larger scale attacks then the likes of that one."

"It might be just what we need to turn the tide of this fight."

"But do you think it's going to work?"

"I think there's only one way to find out. For the time being, you and Piccolo should charge in and we'll try and find some way to knock him off guard, and in the meantime…"

"I think I understand, I won't let you down Goku."

"I know you won't."

"Are you through concocting your little plan of attack?" Baby's black aura spiked as he powered himself up.

"Oh trust me, that's just the tip of the iceberg." Piccolo stepped forward and flared his milky white aura "We plan on paying you back for all the hell you've put us through, along with everyone else on Earth. As far as we're concerned, the time has come for the three of us to take control of this fight."

"We'll see about that."

"You bet we will! **Twin Dragon Shot!" **Goku suddenly flashed back into Super Saiyan 3 and fired forward a Twin Dragon Shot.

Baby dispelled it with his black aura, just in time to see Piccolo and Majuub charging at him, which led him to be kicked through a nearby mountain, and even after rebounding he was forced on the defensive, which led to him being pushed back even as they took their fight to the skies of Planet Tuffle '_Dammit, these wretches don't let up!'_

"Now's my chance, take this Baby!" seizing the opportunity, Goku hit Baby full on with a fully charged Super Kamehameha.

"Did you really think that you would be able to use the same tactic against me twice? **Big Bang Attack!" **Baby fired a Big Bang Attack at the Super Kamehameha, weakening the blast enough for him to charge through it, and he then sent Goku flying into a nearby plateau with a brutal uppercut, easily deflecting another Super Kamehameha in the process.

Majuub and Piccolo quickly regrouped at the sight of Goku being pummeled "This is bad, our plan isn't working. What do we do?"

"Right now, the best hope that we've got is for all three of us to attack him at once." Piccolo told him "Let's give it a try."

"Right!" so the two of them blitzed into the fray and attempted to strike Baby while firing two simultaneous attacks, a Majin Kamehameha and a Light Grenade to be more specific.

"You think a few pathetic attacks like that will be enough for you to stop me! Well think again you fools! **REVENGE DEATH BALL!" **Baby summoned a massive ball of black energy and hurled it forward, causing the three blasts to collide with it, the resulting explosion engulfing all of those present.

When the explosion subsided, Piccolo and Majuub both hit the ground hard with two simultaneous thuds "Dammit… to think he fought off… our combined attack… He's even more powerful… than I had anticipated…"

Baby looked down at their injured forms with a malicious smirk "I think it's about time for me to end your insignificant lives."

"**KamehameHA!" **a Kamehameha suddenly slammed into the side of his face, courtesy of none other than Pan as she burst onto the scene and sent Baby flying a short distance away, and then followed up with a furious barrage of attacks "Did you really think that I was just gonna sit on my butt on the sidelines after all the crap you put all of us through?!" she was met with a solid kick that sent her crashing into a plateau.

"Did you think it would be that easy?"

"I don't care what I have to say or do, I swear I'm gonna take you down for everything you've done, for everyone you've hurt, no matter what it takes!" with her rage building, Pan flashed into Super Saiyan as her body bulked up slightly, pushing her to the next level, that being 2nd Grade Super Saiyan "I'm gonna make sure of it myself!" she charged at him at full speed in a blind rage.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Baby stopped Pan's assauled with a single bare hand, and then he fired a simple Ki blast at her that sent her tumbling across the battlefield, only to be met with a Ki blast to the back.

As it turns out, that Ki blast came from Goku himself, his Super Saiyan 3 aura still crackling with electricity "You didn't forget about me did you?"

"I would never forget a filthy Saiyan wretch such as yourself." Baby returned to the ground to meet him at eye level "Do you really believe you'll be able to face me alone? In case you've forgotten, that didn't work out so well for you last time, which was less than two days ago."

"It doesn't matter if I think I can or not, it's the only choice I've got right now."

"Spare me your drivel, I've heard more than enogh out of you to last a lifetime." Baby fired a simple Big Bang Attack at Goku, then followed up with a brutal kick to the gut and uppercut to the jaw that sent him hurtling to the ground "It doesn't matter what you say or do, it's not going to be enough. I hold the power to conquer this entire universe at my command!" he held his hands over his head "And now the burden of weakness, the failure of defeat and death, and the agony of extinction, they all fall upon you! **REVENGE DEATH BALL!" **he hurled forward a massive Revenge Death Ball at full power towards the three of them.

"Dammit…" unable to move for the moment and with no options available, Majuub could only shut his eyes and wait for the inevitable… only to open his eyes a gain when he noticed something in front of him.

As it turns out, Goku was standing in front of him and Piccolo and holding back the Revenge Death Ball with a full power True Kamehameha "Come on, come on, COME ON!"

"Goku… what are you doing…? You have to get… out of the way…"

"No I can't, if I stop holding this thing back then we're all as good as dead!"

"Goku this is fucking insane!" Piccolo pulled himself back to his feet "You don't have the power to hold back that blast, you have to get out of there now!"

"I said I can't!" Goku spiked his aura and poured more power into his True Kamehameha, but as he did he gave a quick glance back at them "Hey Piccolo, Majuub, take these!" using his tail, he dug into his gi and threw two small objects towards them.

"Senzu Beans?"

"Yep, one for each of you. I had Kibito Kai stop by and get some from Korin before he brought me here. I might not be able to do much against Baby, but at the very least I can buy you guys a little bit of time! Do whatever you have to do to take him down, make sure that the others all survive this!" and with that, Goku's True Kamehameha finally gave out, along with his Super Saiyan 3 form, and the Revenge Death Ball sent him flying across the planet.

"And thus a proud legacy falls." Baby noted with a malicious smirk "You should be grateful to that Saiyan, he chose to sacrifice himself for your miserable worthless lives."

"Don't count… on that…" Piccolo pulled himself back to his feet and used the Senzu Bean he received from Goku to recover, with Majuub promptly doing the same "Goku gave everything he had so that the two of us could keep fighting…"

"But don't think for a second that he would die from something like that." Majuub quickly followed Piccolo's lead "He'll find a way to recover and push himself to even new heights of power, I know that for a fact. Both of us do, and that's why now both of us have enough power to be able to do this!" Majuub suddenly blitzed forward and buried his fist in Baby's gut, causing him to cough up blood "The difference being that now, the two of us are back at full power, and as such we're ready to take you down."

"Don't think… Don't think that I'll go down so easily." Baby dropped back into his combat stance and prepared to fight.

Majuub and Piccolo both dropped into their own stances in response to this "We know, and we're ready."

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Meanwhile, with Goku…

Goku pulled himself out of the rubble and fell back on his back as he spat out some blood '_This isn't how I imagined things going, how can he always be one step ahead of me? It's like he's constantly reading my mind somehow.' _he looked up at the Earth in the distance '_Earth, she's so beautiful, just like she's always been. Just the thought of me not being to protect her… I can't stand a thought like that… I have so many fond memories of the Earth… the only planet I've ever called home… All of my friends… my family… all of them… those who have been at my side through every step of the way, through the good times and the bad… The thought of not being able to save them from Baby… I can't stand it… Please, let me find the strength I need inside me to end this nightmare…' _he started up at the Earth with a sense of longing, his tail wiggling around as he did, and that was when it happened. His eyes turned red as his chest started pounding rapidly, and his body started bulking up and gaining muscle mass, his features becoming more primal by the minute.

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Meanwhile, with Majuub and Piccolo…

By this point, Majuub and Piccolo had broken off from their assault against Baby, only to stop when they noticed something "Piccolo do you see that? It's Goku, he's transforming again. Is this some new Super Saiyan form he acquired?"

"No, that's definitely not it." Piccolo told him grimly "I've only seen this once before a long time ago, back when I was first training Gohan, but I know all too well what this is. This can only mean one thing-" he was cut off by a furious primal roar as a golden column of Ki burst upwards from Goku's body, shattering the landscape around him, and then Goku transforming into a large ape-like creature with golden-colored fur "He's becoming a Great Ape. I don't get it though, this shouldn't be possible."

"Why is that?"

"I know for a fact that a Saiyan needs two things in order to transform into a Great Ape, their tail land the full moon. Sure Goku has his tail back now, but that doesn't change the fact that I destroyed the moon myself years ago in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening, so how?"

"Wait a second, that was you?"

"That doesn't matter now, it was years ago. The point is there needs to be a full moon in order to cause this kind of transformation."

"So then… Wait a minute, take a look." Majuub pointed up at the Earth above them "It's not the moon, but this planet is in the same orbit that the moon used to be in right?"

"Not exactly, but it's close enough, so that must mean Goku is using the Earth in place of the full moon."

"Is that supposed to be good or bad for us though?"

"I can't say for certain just yet, right now it's a matter of whether or not he can gain conscious control of the form."

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By this point, Baby had reached the same conclusion as Piccolo, and could only watch from his place perched atop a nearby plateau as the Golden Great Ape form of Goku started mindlessly rampaging across the planet '_Dammit! My people numbered in the millions, until the day came when those filthy Saiyan apes came to pillage our planet, the memories of that day burned into my very being. I'll be long dead before I ever allow that hell to come into fruition again! _I hope you're prepared Goku, because you're about to witness once again the power of a Tuffle reborn in the body of a Saiyan! Your time has the dominant species of the universe has long since come to an end!" he held up both hands and began charging his Revenge Death Ball.

Goku was quick to notice this despite his primal state of mind, and promptly hurled a massive rock at Baby to stop him from charging his attack, then dealt him a smash attack that sent him flying through several buildings.

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Meanwhile, with the others…

Pan's eyes snapped open and she bolted upright while she was panting heavily, and she was helped to her feet by Majuub and Piccolo "Oh thanks guys, I guess you had an extra Senzu Bean stashed away."

"You're lucky for it too, you shouldn't have been so reckless." Majuub told her.

"I couldn't just let you guys get yourselves killed!"

"Forget about that, it doesn't matter anymore." Piccolo told her flatly "We've got much bigger problems to deal with right now."

"Yeah I can tell, from what I can sense from here it feels like there's something seriously wrong with Grandpa Goku."

"Because there is, we've gotta get moving and fast."

"Right!" and so the three of them blasted off across the skies of Planet Tuffle.

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Meanwhile, with Baby…

As a result of the thrashing Goku gave him, Baby was now lying in a pile of rubble and his own blood within an abandoned building '_That's how my people were slaughtered like animals, but while the Saiyans may pull the same old tricks, my race happens to have the benefit of genetic enginieering going for us.' _he slowly pulled himself out of the rubble '_I'm going to make him regret surviving this long against me, his death will be slow and painful.' _then he looked up and saw Goku rampaging through the city searching for him '_He just won't stop will he?'_

Goku climbed atop the abandoned building and started tearing away at it in search of Baby, only to be met with a Ki blast to the face that nearly blew him to the ground, but he held on in his rage and started tearing away at the building again.

"Take this you wretched primate!" Baby leapt into the air and started bombarding Goku with a rapid barrage of Ki blasts, causing him to fall to the ground and destroying the building in the process "I hate to break it to you monkey, actually no I don't, but such brute force jungle tactics aren't going to be anywhere near enough for you to defeat me!" he started laughing over his supposed triumph, but stopped when he saw something.

That something turned out to be Goku climbing his way out of the rubble, and then he suddenly breathed out a stream of flames that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

Baby eventually managed to outmaneuver the stream of flames, only for Goku to smack him straight to the ground in an instant.

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Meanwhile, with the others…

By this point, Piccolo and the others had reached the ruins of the abandoned city, or what was left of it anyway "Goku's Ki signature is coming from over there, and his power is rising by the second."

"What does that mean then?" asked Pan "You think he has something to do with that gigantic monkey?"

"The technical term is Great Ape, and no, he _is _the Great Ape. What's even more disconcerting is the fact that right now, he might be the only one powerful enough to put an end to Baby once and for all."

"But I thought he couldn't transform like that anymore."

"He couldn't initially, but now that he has his tail back there's nothing stopping him from staying in this form, but the problem now is that he can't control himself when he's like that."

"We've gotta stop him then, if things keep going like this then he's gonna end up killing someone or worse!"

"Easier said than done, not only is he mindless in this state, but he's at least 100 times more powerful than his normal state."

"But there has to be a way to snap him out of it!"

"Of course there is, it's just a matter of how."

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At the same time, Old Kai observed Goku's mindless rampage from the Sacred World of the Kai through his crystal ball, but he didn't seem discouraged in the slightest. He already knew fully well that if Goku were to find a way to regain his humanity, then he would be able to achieve the ultimate Super Saiyan level, the absolute pinnacle of Saiyan power: Super Saiyan 4.

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Meanwhile, on Planet Tuffle…

With Baby nowhere in sight, Goku continued his mindless rampage of destruction, ripping apart one plateau after another with pure physical strength alone, which also resulted in various volcanic eruptions across the planet, but stopped when he reached a lake away from the abandoned city, saw the Earth in the water's reflection, and then looked up at the Earth in what appeared to be a sense of longing.

Pan and the others watched Goku's actions from afar "What's he doing, why is he just staring up at the sky like that?"

"It's not just the sky Pan, it's the Earth." Piccolo told her "I think something about the Earth has caught his attention." he was proven right by Goku suddenly climbing a mountain nearby and reaching out towards the Earth "Come on, let's follow him for now and see what he does."

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Meanwhile, with Baby…

By this point, despite being heavily wounded and slightly disoriented, Baby had reached his own conclusion in regards to Goku's transformation '_Yes it's true, if Goku has the ability to turn into one of these beastly apes then by all means, I should have the same power at my disposal. I hope you're ready Saiyan, our next confrontation will be our last.' _and so he promptly blasted off across the skies of Planet Tuffle.

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Meanwhile, with our heroes…

By this point, Pan and the others were flying across the skies after Goku, watching as he slowly climbed one mountain after another '_What's the matter with you Grandpa, what could've done this to you?'_

"Wait stop, I think something is happening." Piccolo stopped Pan and Majuub a fair distance awat from Goku, watching as his eyes began to flicker from red to gold and he started reaching out towards the Earth with a sense of longing.

"Grandpa… I get it. You miss Earth just as much as the rest of us don't you?" Pan was met with the sight of Goku beating against his chest like a gorilla "Maybe I can try to get through to him somehow."

"Pan wait, that's too risky."

"He recognizes the Earth at least, maybe he can try and recognize one of us too." so Pan then floated up in front Goku's face, which instantly caught his attention "Grandpa, do you remember who I am? It's me, Pan, your granddaughter. I need you to focus for me, okay? You came to this planet in order to defeat Baby, so that we'll all be able to go home to our friends and family waiting for us. I know you can hear me Grandpa, so please work with me!" she was met only with him attempting to grab her and instead sending her hurtling towards the ground.

"Pan!" thinking quick, Majuub caught her before she hit the ground "I've got you now, are you okay?"

"I think so, but I seriously imagined that going differently."

"I can't blame you for trying, I hate the thought of seeing Goku like this too. But if it helps at all, I think Piccolo has it covered." Majuub pointed to where Piccolo was suddenly growing in size until he was in his Great Namekian form, which appeared to rival Goku's Golden Great Ape form in size.

"...Huh. I didn't know he could do that."

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Sure enough, Piccolo had indeed decided to use his Great Namekian form and dealt Goku a fist across his face, sending him stumbling backwards "Come on Goku, I know you're not the brightest but I never once thought you would descend to becoming such a mindless beast!"

Goku let out a roar and tried to punch Piccolo right back, only for that to end with the two of them in a bitter power struggle, both trying to push the other back and failing.

"The Goku I know would be trying to scrape and claw his way out of the beast that I see before me, he couldn't stand the thought of not being able to help his friends and family! Goku, you have so many fond memories of Earth, the only planet that you've ever given the honor of calling your home… a sentiment I know all too well. All of your friends, your family, the people who have stayed at your side through every step of the way, through the good times and the bad times… I thought you couldn't bare to even think about the possibility not being able to save them from Baby. I don't care what I have to say or do, I won't let you forget about the people who helped to save you from yourself!"

Goku's angry expression disappeared as he slowly stopped struggling against Piccolo's hold, a single tear falling down his face.

"Listen to me when I tell say this to you Goku, because you need to hear this. If you don't come to your senses and do this, then Pan is going to die. Uub is going to die. Your sons are going to die. Everyone is going to die eventually. But before all of that, if you don't do this then _you _are going to die. And you're better than that! You're better than Baby! The fact is that you're better than all of us! All of the power and Saiyan heritage coursing through your veins was built from a lifetime of intense battles, overcoming one challenge after another! You're more than just some random Saiyan that lives for the thrill of battle, you are SON GOKU! Now you need to come to your senses, plant your feet, grit your teeth, and EAT! THAT! HORSE!"

Goku let out a low growl as he slowly pushed Piccolo's hand aside and his gaze returned to the form of the Earth behind him, his body slowly being engulfed in golden-colored Ki as he slowly began to revert from his Golden Great Ape form to a more humanoid state, snarling and howling all the while.

Seeing this taking place, Piccolo reverted back to his original state and quickly blitzed over to where Majuub and Pan were currently watching the scene take place "Well I was able to get through to him, that's the good news."

"So what's the bad news?" asked Pan "There is bad news right?"

"I don't know if I would say bad so far, more like news that's to be determined. To put it in simple terms, he's transforming again and I have no idea whether or not he'll be able to control this new form."

"Are you saying we'll have to be ready to fight?" asked Majuub.

"Like I said, that's to be determined. Let's move forward, but make sure you stay cautious as you do."

"Right." and so the three of them slowly advanced forward.

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The transformation had subsided, as had the massive energy storm that been ignited because of the transformation itself.

Goku stood on the remains of the gigantic pile of rubble that used to be a mountain, now with a new appearance as a result of the transformation, his black hair having grown out and appearing more wild, his height having grown until he was back in his adult form, red fur covering his upper body and torso. With his transformation complete, he looked around and then down at himself '_This feeling… this power…'_

"Looks like he's finished with this new transformation, let's move onward but remember to stay cautious and alert." so Piccolo landed on the ground in front of Goku, with Pan and Majuub both following his lead as they slowly made their way forward "So Goku, do you recognize all of us again, or are we going to have to fight you again to bring you back to your senses?"

Hearing this, Goku slowly looked down at Piccolo and the others, seeing the three of them drop into their combat stances, and he shot a smirk at them "How about we save that sort of thing for after we take care of Baby?" he was met with a few sighs of relief from Pan and Majuub.

As for Piccolo, he just shot a smirk at Goku.

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**At last, Goku has regained control of himself, remembered what he's fighting for and who he must defeat, and now he has his gaze set on his target. With the pinnacle of ultimate Saiyan power at his command, will this newly-transformed Super Saiyan 4 be enough to end the menace of Baby and the Tuffles once and for all? Find out next time on Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo's Counterattack!**

**A/N:**

**Now we're getting to the climax of the war against Baby and his Tuffle forces, and we see what may very well be my favorite form in the entirety of the Dragon Ball franchise: Super Saiyan 4. I know I said that this fic was mainly about giving characters other than Goku some time to shine, but I think I've done that quite well up until now, and just because Goku's here doesn't mean he's the only one who's going to have a part in defeating Baby himself. The others will get ample time to shine yet again soon enough.**

**I tried to give some love to all four of the main warriors still in the fight against the forces of Baby, those being Goku, Piccolo, Majuub and even Pan. At least, before the time came for Goku's transformation to begin. I wanted to make Goku's Super Saiyan 3 form look better than it did in canon.**

**I made some changes about the scene where Goku finally gains control over his Golden Great Ape from just Pan trying to snap him out of it, to Piccolo trying to do it as well, and with his Great Namekian form briefly fighting against the Golden Great Ape. Another missed opportunity in my opinion, not just from GT, but from all of the franchise after the 23 World Martial Arts Tournament.**

**One thing that's worth noting here is that, unlike in the original, Majuub didn't turn himself into chocolate and end up inside Baby's stomach. Yeah no, that's not happening here. He's staying outside in the open all the way through, and he'll have his role to play in the final battle against Baby.**


	7. Goku's Comeback, Baby's Ascension

**Princess Lena aka Lady Kittuna: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you like it. Yeah, I'm really trying to give Piccolo some love here, along with a bunch of other characters.

**SSJGogeta729024: **Thanks, I'm glad to see you enjoyed this chapter. I tried to make Goku's fight with Baby as a Super Saiyan 3 better than it was in canon, and clearly you agree that it went well. As for how the fight with Baby is going to turn out. I never really thought about the likes of having a Full Power Super Saiyan 4, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see as to how that will play out, the same with Gohan and the others coming back into play. I'm glad I was able to provide you with inspiration for your Super Dragon Ball Heroes stories. I checked out what you said, and they look pretty interesting. I'll have to check it out when it comes out. But all in all I'm glad you like this fic up to this point, and I hope you keep with that opinion.

**Pulpomolcagetero (ch 1): **Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked this story so much. Yeah, I was not fond of what they did with Piccolo in GT. Yes, the concept of wasting certain characters is apparent in Super, but all they did was make it more visible, when it was already a thing in GT. And yes, time and again they make it look like the Saiyans are the only ones who can do anything, and I plan to change that.

**Pulpomolcagetero (ch 2): **Thanks, I'm glad to see you like this story so much. Yeah, part of me really wanted Piccolo to appear to Pan and help her, and the fact that it never happened really got under my skin. I did enjoy writing out the relationship that exists between Pan and Piccolo, and I really do understand your feelings about Piccolo's death in GT. At least Super built a relationship between Pan and Piccolo, and yes, I would prefer to see Piccolo train her when the time comes, which I did here. And yes, I agree that Dragon Ball has a significant issue with making it look like only the Saiyans are capable of anything anymore. You also raise a point about the Garlic Jr Saga, at least the main characters that were still left actually did something, rather than just sitting around and waiting for Goku to show up and save the day, and Piccolo decided that they needed to confront Baby is another example of that. I'm glad you enjoyed this fic.

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Old Kai watched Goku's evolution into Super Saiyan 4 from his place in the Sacred World of Kais, and he could only watch with joy as the transformation was completed.

Now was the time to see it in action, since Goku was about to finally put Baby in his place once and for all.

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Meanwhile, on Planet Tuffle…

Now that his transformation into a Super Saiyan 4 was complete, Goku looked down at the unconscious forms of Gohan and the others, then looked around at the abandoned city, or what was left of it, mainly the ruins that were left "Tell me, was I the one who did all of this?"

"So you really don't remember any of it?" asked Piccolo.

"I remember looking up at the Earth, then the next thing I know I was on the ground with you yelling at me, and then I transformed into this."

"Well it could've been a lot worse." this was when Mr Satan spoke up "After all, I think we should be grateful that I didn't have to step in or else I would've ripped Baby apart molecule by molecule (who gets that reference?)! However, I did take note of the fact that Goku here has gotten a lot stronger."

"That's one positive in all of this."

"But what happens now Grandpa?" asked Pan "I mean, are you going to be stuck in this form forever?"

"To be honest Pan, I really don't know. But what I do know is that this new body, the incredible level of power coursing through my veins, they're critical right now. Without them, I don't have a chance in hell of defeating Baby."

"Oh hell yeah, now we're talking!" Mr Satan barked out a laugh "With Goku helping me to fight against Baby, he's gonna be a gigantic pile of blood and guts when we're done with him! I say it's high time for the two of us to teach Baby why you don't mess with Earth and live to tell the tale about it!"

"You have the right mindset Mr Satan, but this is my battle now and mine alone. I know exactly where Baby is hiding right now, and if everything goes according to plan, then Earth and all of the people living there will be back to normal before the end of the day. Mr Satan, Piccolo, Uub and Pan, I want you guys to stay here and take care of Gohan and the others until they regain consciousness. After they do, I want you guys to use the Sacred Water on everyone else on this planet and back on Earth."

"We were already planning on that." Piccolo told him flatly "As much as I hate to admit it, the fact is that you alone are more than enough to defeat Baby now."

"I'm hoping that's the case too Piccolo. Now wish me luck." and with that, along with a sudden burst of potent Ki, Goku took off into the skies of Planet Tuffle in search of his target, his mind racing '_I can sense it, he's not far away. That's good, the closer he is the closer I am to putting an end to this nightmare.'_

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Meanwhile, with Baby…

Unfortunately for Baby, his theory in regards to his ability to transform into a Great Ape hadn't panned out like he was hoping "Dammit, this is absolutely absurd! I don't understand, how is it he was able to convert the energy from the Earth! I need an answer on this! It doesn't make any sense, if he's able to transform into that wretched ape then why can't I replicate it?!"

"I must admit, such a concept is rather confusing." Bulma noted "The Blutz Waves that were received by the Saiyan were only recorded from the moon, but then again this planet was restored in the exact position the Earth's moon was originally relocated."

"I know that already, but what I need to know is why it didn't affect me the same way! Why is it that Vegeta wasn't affected by it the same way? I demand that you give me an answer to this question immediately!"

"I have little data on this matter, but my current hypothesis is that it is because Vegeta does not have a tail, but the Saiyan does."

"...I see. Of course, these putried Saiyans and their tails, the filthy primates." then Baby's head suddenly snapped up as he sensed something "So this is it, he's coming. I want you to give me a solution to this problem as soon as possible, and when I say that I mean I want to have it within the hour, and I will not tolerate failure from you! Do I make myself clear?!"

"O-Of course my lord."

"Good." then cue the explosion "So he's here."

Sure enough, the wall of the tower exploded to reveal Goku floating there, a confident smirk plastered across his face "Looks like I finally found you Baby."

"So you did. Tell me something Goku, was the hulking beast form too much power for you to control on your own?"

"Oh yeah sure, this is just another costume change for the weakling Saiyan. That's what you were thinking right? Well I have some news for you Baby, you're dead wrong." he then unleashed a surge of power to prove his point, causing the machinery surrounding Bulma to explode as a result, and then Goku's gaze hardened "But this isn't just a matter of pride. You took away the things that I hold dear, my friends, my family, my home. I'm never going to forgive you for that."

"Be silent you wretch, I wouldn't be caught dead asking for forgiveness from the likes of Saiyan scum like you! I'm not going to leave a single one of your kind in the realm of the living!" and so he charged at Goku in a rage.

"I see." so Goku sidestepped the attack, and with a simple shockwave he sent Baby hurtling out of the side of the tower. He then spared a quick glance at Bulma, only to be met with the sight of her glaring daggers at him '_Bulma… No Goku, you have to focus. This isn't the time to get too sentimental, now's the time to take him down.' _so he slowly left the tower through the hole in the wall.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Piccolo observed the clash from his place on the sidelines with the others '_So this is what Old Kai was planning for him, the full power of a Super Saiyan combined with the power of a Great Ape. The question is, how far is this new form going to take him? Will this prove to be enough for him to take down Baby on his own, or are me and the others going to have to get involved in it again? I guess the only way to find out is to watch.'_

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Meanwhile, on the battlefield…

Goku landed on the ground in front of Baby just as he was cleaning the rubble off himself "I hope you're ready Baby, the real fight starts now."

"So it shall." Baby pulled himself to his feet and tried to fire forward a Big Bang Attack almost immediately.

Goku blitzed through the attack, as well as Baby himself, ripping through a large part of his armor, as well as part of the tower with his sheer Ki alone '_The speed and power of this form feels incredible, it's like nothing I've ever felt before. Not to mention I can feel that there's next to no power drain, which is a lot more than I can say for Super Saiyan 3. This form is exactly what I need to turn the tide of this war. But then again I don't think I should be getting so ahead of myself right now. After all, I can't let a single scrape of him remain, or else what's to stop him from doing this all over again?'_

"I hope you don't let yourself become conceited because of a simple power increase!" Baby was quick to charge at Goku and launch a furious barrage of punches and kicks.

Goku dodged, blocked and weaved his way around every attack Baby was throwing at him with ease, and eventually he dealt Baby a swift kick to the chest that sent him hurtling backwards a great distance.

"Die Saiyan, DIE! **REVENGE DEATH BALL!" **with his rage growing, Baby summoned a Revenge Death Ball and hurled it forward at full speed.

Goku only needed to fire a simple Ki blast at the Revenge Death Ball, cancelling it out in a blinding explosion as a result "Was I supposed to be impressed?"

"You cancelled out my Revenge Death Ball?! No it doesn't matter, I'm going to send you to the depths of hell where you belong!" Baby burst through the flames and launched another rapid barrage of punches and kicks.

Goku easily dodged every strike and eventually sent Baby flying backwards again with a punch to the gut, an uppercut to the jaw and a kick to the neck.

Baby stopped himself and fired forward a rapid barrage of Ki blasts at Goku in a rage.

Goku dodged each Ki blast with a series of backflips and blitzing through the explosions, leaving a considerable percentage of the abandoned city to be demolished instead, while he finally went on the offensive himself.

Baby was able to dodge and parry most of Goku's strikes, but when he went to land a punch to the face he was stopped by a simple shockwave.

Goku seized this opportunity to deal Baby an elbow to the back of the neck, a kick to the spine, and finally a Ki-enhanced punch to the gut, causing Baby to cry out in agony as he was sent flying through several buildings. Goku then took an opportunity to examine himself '_Looks like I was right before, but the gap in power between us has grown even wider than I ever thought it would be. After all the struggling against Baby up until now, I finally have the upper hand against him. I just hope I can keep this up, I can't let myself become complacent. _You can come out now Baby, I know for a fact that was nowhere near enough to take you out."

Sure enough, within a moment Baby burst upwards from within the rubble, seething with rage over the recent events "No it can't be, this is impossible!"

"Believe it Baby, now you know what it feels like to be helpless, to watch as everything you've strived for is being ripped away from you. You can't defeat me now Tuffle, the fact is that my powers are on a level that you can only dream of, and you know that all too well."

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! DIE YOU FILTHY SAIYAN!" Baby fired forward a rapid barrage of Ki blasts at Goku in a blind rage.

Goku didn't even bother dodging these blasts as they blew right past him "Just face the reality of the situation Baby, you can't win this battle. You tried to take away the people, and for that you're going to pay. You crossed a line that few others have, and now you're going to face the consequences." he blitzed forward and buried his fist in Baby's gut, causing him to cough up blood, then fired a simple Kiai shockwave at him, sending him hurtling towards the ground at full speed.

'_Dammit!'_

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Meanwhile, in the tower…

Bulma could only watch in horror at the sight of Baby being pummeled by Goku "Lord Baby no, I can't allow him to fail like this, not after we've come so far! If that Saiyan is able to defeat him then our entire race will become extinct! I have to get the amplifier up and running, it may very well be our only hope for victory!"

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Meanwhile, on the battlefield…

Goku easily dodged a pitiful attack by Baby and dealt him a brutal smash attack to the spine, sending him hurtling towards the ground once again, and he started advancing towards him "I usually do enjoy a good fight, but what I'm feeling around you is entirely different."

"You… You…" Baby struggled back to his feet and let out a chuckle "It's quite fitting for such a moronic Saiyan, to think that your ignorance is showing again. Who exactly do you think it is you're fighting against here? It's certainly not your enemy, keep in mind that this is the body of your friend and comrade Vegeta, so you can keep attacking as much as you like Goku, but all you're going to be doing is killing your friend."

"That just shows how little you really know about Saiyans, I've fought Vegeta before, and we haven't come anywhere close to reaching his breaking point."

"I see, so you understand his limits. That's perfect, all we have to do is push this fight along until we reach that breaking point."

"You act as if you know the Saiyans inside and out, but the fact is that in regards to knowledge about Saiyans, you're dangerously lacking in way too many areas to count. What you don't realize is that the longer a Saiyan continues to fight, the more powerful he becomes."

"Your warrior race, it truly sickens me in every way, shape and form." Baby promptly fired a Big Bang Attack at him.

Goku cranked his neck to the side to dodge the attack with ease "I'm not in the mood for playing games with you Baby." he held out his hand and struck Baby with a shockwave, sending him flying backwards.

Baby thrusted himself into the air, his mind racing '_This can't be the limit of my powers, it just can't be!'_

"_Lord Baby please, you have to pull yourself together!"_

"Bulma, Bulma is that you?"

"_You can't allow that Saiyan to defeat you, not at this stage! We've almost completed your plans for galactic development, and we're just weeks away from turning the entire galaxy into Tuffles like all of us! On top of that, I was able to solve your gorilla problem. I was able to find a way to focus the Blutz Waves."_

"Well it's about time I was seeing some results."

"_Just look over towards our tower my lord."_

Baby looked over towards the tower, only to see several satellite dishes emerging and pointing directly at him "Okay, so what exactly am I looking at right now?"

"_What you're looking at my lord, is the Blutz Wave Amplifier. In simple terms, the Blutz Waves that were reflecting off of the Earth will be increased by 1000%, and then they will be transferred to you once it's been activated. That will give us the edge we need to increase your power and battle prowess to a level beyond that of the Saiyan without having to wait for Vegeta's tail to grow back.'_

"Yes, that does sound promising in theory, but there is one concern I have. Will I be able to control my own actions in such a state? I don't want to demolish my own planet after all the work I did to restore it, I just want to kill the Saiyan."

"Hey Baby, get a load of this!" this was when Goku got his attention from where he was floating high above Baby, his hands cupped at his side in a familiar form "Now this fight ends, I'm gonna make sure of it! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me…"**

"...Do it Bulma, do it now!" and so in an instant, Baby was engulfed in a massive light fired by the satellite dishes, causing him to scream in agony.

'_What the hell is he doing?!' _Goku actually stopped charging his Kamehameha in shock as he watched what was going on.

Baby could only scream in pain and agony as he slowly grew in size until, before anybody knew it, he had turned into a Golden Great Ape himself.

'_You've gotta be kidding me, you mean he found a way to transform too? This is bad, if he's anything like I am in that form then he's gonna end up smashing the entire planet to bits and killing everyone! I've gotta stop him before that happens!'_

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"Yes Lord Baby, we did it! Your plan was successful, just like I knew it would be!" Bulma's eyes lit up with glee, along with a strong sense of malice "Now go and show that Saiyan why you don't mess with the Tuffles and live to tell the tale, don't stop until he's nothing but a corpse covered in blood and fur!"

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Unfortunately for pretty much everyone on the planet, Goku's theory turned out to be accurate, and it was horrifying.

Now that he was a Golden Great Ape himself, Baby was rampaging across the Tuffle Planet in a mindless rage, smashing things and firing Ki waves from his mouth with destruction as his only goal.

Goku was forced to brace himself for the explosions that resulted from the rampage '_Great, this is getting worse by the second. He clearly can't control himself when he's like this, if I try to fight him now then Pan and the others will get caught in the crossfire! I have to try and lure Baby out of the city, somewhere people won't get hurt!' _speaking of Baby, he whipped around just in time to see a certain giant monkey pounce at him through the smoke and send him crashing into a nearby building.

Baby was now left alone, beating on his chest like a mindless gorilla and standing supposedly triumphant.

Goku pulled himself out of the rubble and shot a glare at Baby "I don't care what form you try to take, you're still not gonna get away with this!"

Baby didn't respond to this, instead he just let out a stream of flames across the abandoned city as he continued beating against his chest like a mindless beast.

'_So he's leaving me alone, it looks like the Great Ape transformation has made him lose control of himself, along with any sort of sight of his objective.'_

Baby breathed out another powerful wave of flames throughout the city, which unfortunately also resulted in lots of burnt corpses being sprawled out throughout the city, and earning almost as many screams of pain and agony.

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Meanwhile, in the Tuffle tower…

Bulma was watching the battle between Goku and Baby unfol, as well as watching it devolve into a mindless rampage of destruction on the part of Baby '_This is bad, Lord Baby doesn't have any sense of control of himself anymore. _Lord Baby please, you have to stop this! Can you even understand what I'm saying to you? At this rate, your own planet is about to be destroyed by your hand!" and then all of her screens went dark, and so she abandoned her work station and rushed to the balcony on the outside of the castle "Lord Baby please, you have to stop this before it's too late!"

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

"Gramps hold on!" Pan grabbed a hold of Mr Satan after he was hit by a piece of rubble, stopping him from being sent crashing to the ground "There, you've gotta be more careful okay? And please don't try and say anything like you meant to do that."

"Heads up you two, we've got company." Majuub pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

"Take a look and see for yourself, he's coming for us." Piccolo noted grimly, which was immediately followed by Baby appearing through the smoke and flames and unleashing a blast of his Fire Breath in their direction, which he was able to counter with a quick Explosive Demon Wave, but just barely, and then he followed up with a second one, engulfing Baby in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared however, Baby was revealed to not even be scratched by the blast.

'_Dammit, I shouldn't be surprised. The Great Ape transformation multiplies the user's power, speed and durability 10-fold, and I was barely able to hold my own before. Goku, if you're gonna pull out a surprise attack of some kind, then now would be the time to do so.'_

"Ahem." a tapping on the back of Baby's shoulder drew his attention and made him turn around, which allowed Goku to land a punch and hit him right between the eyes, causing him to roar in pain as he stumbled backwards "In case you forgot Baby, I'm the one you're fighting, and you'd better have enough energy left to back up all of the talking you've been doing." he blitzed forward and landed a kick directly on the top of Baby's head, causing him to roar in agony once again, and then a final kick sent him crashing into a nearby gorge. With Baby down for at least a moment, Goku blitzed over to check on Piccolo and the others "Looks to me like you guys are holding up a lot better than you could be, and I know this is probably a stupid question, but are you guys okay?"

"All things considered Goku, we could be a lot worse off." Majuub told him "So this is that Great Ape transformation that you told me about, now the question is, what's going to end up happening to Baby?"

"Well he might have gained a massive increase in power, speed and pretty much every physical attribute, but he doesn't have any control over that power or himself. He's basically a mindless beast with the power of the universe, but he can't use it properly."

"Then I guess that's a good thing, or else he could wipe all of us out with a single blast if he wanted to."

"He might be big and have the power to back up his massive size, but now that I have the power of Super Saiyan 4 to use at will, I doubt he'll be able to do that much."

"Which is a good thing for all of us."

"His power is pretty great sure, but in the end his rage and lack of control are going to turn out to be his undoing. He could never dream of understanding how to control the abilities of the Saiyan, even if he did have control over himself."

"I take it you have a plan then?" Piccolo guessed.

"You might say that. There's only one way we're ever going to put an end to this, and that's if we take Baby to another planet using my Instant Transmission."

"But grandpa, if you were going to do that then you'd have to get close enough to him to be able to touch him." Pan pointed out "Do you really think you can?"

"That shouldn't be a problem, my confidence has risen about as much as my power. To put it in simple terms, right now there isn't a single thing I'm not able to do." and he did a backflip down into the gorge.

"Just make sure it's a planet where there isn't any population!"

"I've been doing this for a lot longer than you give me credit for Pan!" but then he frowned in thought "But at the same time, I can't be sure that the planet where I take him won't end up increasing his powers or give him some kind of advantage over me. Wait that's it, I can take Baby to somewhere in the Other World and then I can ask the Old Kai how I can handle him in the best way! The old man is totally going to love this plan!"

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Meanwhile, on the Sacred World of the Kais…

To put it simply, Old Kai did _not _love the plan.

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Meanwhile, on Planet Tuffle…

"Oh for crying out loud, come on already!" as a form of karma for his terrible idea, Goku was quick to find himself being forced on the evasive by Baby's Fire Breath attacks, but eventually he managed to blitz in front of Baby and placed two fingers to his forehead '_I can sense it plain as day, the Old Kai knows I'm coming.' _but then he was forced to retreat after seeing Baby try to fire a finger blast at him at nearly point blank range '_What the hell was that just now, what's he doing?!'_

"_**FLAMING DEATH BALL!"**_ Baby suddenly rose up into the air and fired forward a massive Revenge Death Ball, only this one had a reddish tint to it.

Startled by a sudden development that he noticed, Goku was promptly sent hurtling towards the ground by the blast, though he was able to dissipate it with a quick Kamehameha, and then he floated back up to meet Baby at eye level "Tell me something, how is it that you actually spoke to me just now?"

"_**Honestly, Saiyans never learn do they? Haven't you been following anything up until this point?"**_

"Hold on a second… Don't tell me that you were…"

"_**So you can actually use that brain of yours, that's more than what can be said for any of the others of your kind."**_

"So what does that mean then, you're saying that you didn't just turn into an ordinary mindless Great Ape?"

"_**Seriously Saiyan, just use what little brain you have. Vegeta was the one who transformed into the mindless beast, but I did not. I am simply the parasite, I have complete control of him and I'm not limited to just his body. I have the ability to use his feeble Saiyan mind in any way that I wish, in order to correct directly to yours. I can feel it, I'm so close now that I can almost taste it." **_he was met with only a chuckle from Goku.

"So tell me something, if you're the so-called puppet master, then why bother to let your gigantic furry puppet go on a rampage like that and kill so many of your loyal subjects?"

"_**Well truth be told, part of me did it for the fun, but the other part of me wanted to know what it felt like to be in your shoes Goku."**_

"That's the big difference between us Baby, I would never knowling harm innocents, and I sure as hell don't enjoy it!" Goku charged towards Baby at a rapid speed, only to end up being swatted into and through a nearby cliffside, leaving a massive column of smoke and dust in his wake

"_**Oh come now, I'm not that bad of a puppet master now am I?"**_

Goku blitzed through the smoke and tried to deal Baby another attack, only to be sent flying upwards by a powerful punch.

"_**You're definitely losing it, you're not so sure you can defeat me anymore are you? You have an entirely new level of doubt and fear ruling your thoughts right now aren't you, and it's quickly turning into your reality, the fact that your life is about to come to a brutal and horrifying end!" **_Baby blitzed above Goku and attempted to deal him a smash attack.

"You wanna bet? It sounds to me like your own overconfidence will turn out to be your own undoing." Goku promptly blitzed out of view.

"Why don't you prove me wrong?" Baby followed Goku's lead and blitzed out of view as well, resulting in the two of them trading blows across the Tuffle Planet.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Piccolo and the others could only watch with growing irritation at the sight of the battle unfolding, and seemingly taking a turn for the worst "This isn't good."

"It could be a lot worse though." Majuub pointed out "Even if Baby is a lot bigger and stronger now, we can be sure that Goku is still a lot faster than him."

"In terms of speed yes, but physical strength and power are another matter, so the balance isn't anywhere near as easy to see. As much as I hate to say it, the battle could actually turn in favor of either way right now."

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Meanwhile, back on the main battlefield…

Things had taken a turn for the worst, as Baby had caught Goku in his grip and was slowly starting to squeeze him with sadistic glee "_**I could easily squeeze the life out of you until your bones shatter one by one, and do all of it with a smile on my face."**_

"You know you always waste so much time talking about what you could do, so why don't you actually give it a shot for once." Goku then proceeded to spike his golden aura with enough power so that he broke free of Baby's grip, and then he blitzed behind Baby, grabbed onto him by one of his massive hands, and then he proceeded to flip him and send him crashing to the ground within the massive gorges with a loud thud "And that's another point for yours truly."

Baby quickly pulled himself back to his feet and shook off the disorientation "_**Dammit, there's no way you should've been able to do that!"**_

"And you should've learned by now that it's never a good idea to underestimate your opponent in a fight."

"_**SHUT UP!" **_Baby then proceeded to fire a series of finger beams at Goku in a blind rage that clouded his focus.

Goku quickly blitzed his way around every single finger beam, which unfortunately left each blast to detonate around the planet, which he was quick to notice '_This isn't good, maybe I pushed him a little bit too hard. Most of those blasts are raining down on the city, and that must mean… he's aiming for the people!" _he quickly blitzed up to meet Baby at eye level "Why are you bothering to take it out on them when I'm right in front of you?"

"_**It's simple you fool, it's so you know just how much I want to make you suffer the worst pain imaginable!" **_it was at that moment that he noticed Chichi among the various crowds down in the city "_**Why don't you take a look at your friends and family down there, and I'll be sure to prove it to you!" **_and then he fired a finger beam down at Chichi with a sadistic grin plastered across his snout.

"Why you son of a- CHICHI!" without hesitation, Goku blitzed down towards where Chichi was on the ground, reaching her in the exact instant the explosion went off.

Baby was left laughing maniacally with a rather large amount of sadistic glee.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

Mr Satan and the others were quick to notice the explosion going off in the distance "What is he doing now?"

"My guess is something incredibly underhanded." Majuub told him grimly.

"You're right about that." from the smoke emerged Goku himself, holding the unconscious form of Chichi in his arms, and he gently set her down on the ground "I'm sorry to pawn this off on you guys, but can you please take care of her?"

"We're already taking care of Gohan and the others, so of course. You can count on us Goku."

"I know that, thank you." once he left Chichi in the company of the others, Goku began grinding his teeth furiously "Dammit I can't do this, I can't put up with this anymore!" and so he blitzed away from the group.

"There are few things all wise men fear, one of them being the anger of a gentle man. Goku isn't the kind of person to actually hate someone with that much passion."

"But when someone actually threatens to hurt his friends and family, and actually tries to for that matter, that's when he takes off the metaphorical gloves." Piccolo noted grimly "Baby crossed a line just now, and now Goku is going to make him pay for it."

"I just hope that he doesn't do anything reckless."

"Don't worry about that, Goku might let his rage out of the bag on rare occasions, but he's not that much of a fool."

"I hope you're right about that Piccolo, I really do."

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

By this point, Goku had returned to the battlefield and was levelling his gaze on Baby, and it was one filled with suppressed rage "That was a dirty trick you pulled back there Baby, and you're playing one hell of a dirty game now."

"_**Correct me if I'm wrong Saiyan, but no one ever presented me with any sort of rulebook on taking over the galaxy, but considering the fact that I'm winning right now, I'd say that I'm doing quite well in my efforts." **_with more sadistic glee, Baby whipped around and cupped his hands at his side, aiming in the direction of a certain planet not far away from the one they were currently on "_**SUPER GALICK GUN!" **_he aimed a large purple Ki beam at the Earth itself.

'_You've gotta be kidding me, now he's aiming at the Earth itself?! Dammit, I'm only gonna have one shot at this! _**Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!" **thinking quick, Goku fired a 10x Kamehameha at the Super Galick Gun to try and stop it or cancel it out, only for him to quickly realize a certain problem '_Dammit, it's not gonna reach it in time!'_

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Meanwhile, back on Earth…

At the same time, in Satan City, Marron and Android 18 (still have to wonder how she got infected by Baby) were forcing Krillin to gather up supplies for their move to Planet Tuffle, but that was when the Super Galick Gun that Baby had fired hit the city, leaving them in a panic as they wondered what the hell was going on.

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Meanwhile, back on the Tuffle Planet…

Once the blast had subsided, Goku appeared in front of Baby's massive form and levelled his furious gaze on him "And exactly what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"_**What am I doing? I'll tell you what I'm doing you Saiyan scum, I'm doing anything I can and want to, if for no other reason than it means that I get to see that horrified and confused look on your face!"**_

"This is about more than just you or me Baby, this is about the people of Earth, along with the Earth itself. It doesn't matter if they worship you like a god and me like a devil, the fact is that the Earth has been and always will be my home, and even if I have to fight against everybody on it, I'm going to save it and all of them from their corrupt leader." Goku charged two Ki blasts in his hands, and then he cupped his hands at his side and combined the two Ki blasts into one much larger one "Now see if you can laugh at this one Baby, I'm ending this! **Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HAAAAAAAAAAA!" **with a roar loud enough to make his voice actor pass out, Goku fired forward a massive 10x Kamehameha blast, engulfing Baby in the absolutely massive explosion that followed, the blast bathing the entire Tuffle Planet in a white light, but at the same time, a strong sense of shame was overcoming him '_I'm sorry, I had to sacrifice your body in order to put an end to Baby, but it was for the Earth and its people. _I just hope that you can find it in yourself to forgive me someday… old friend." his thoughts were cut short by the sound of malicious chuckling that made his blood run cold "No, it can't be…"

When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Baby hadn't been damaged by the blast in the slightest, not even a single scratch "_**Well well, it seems that in the end, your best just wasn't good enough **_**old friend**_**."**_

'_That's impossible, there's no way he should've been able to come out of that unscathed!'_

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

"Dammit…" from his place on the sidelines with the others, Piccolo was gritting his teeth furiously as he watched the battle apparently take a turn for the worst "This just got a hell of a lot worse."

"But I don't understand Piccolo, what about Goku's Kamehameha wave?" asked Majuub "I don't get how Baby didn't at least take some damage from that."

"There's definitely something different about Baby, a strange energy source that I'm detecting from him, just take a look and see for yourself."

"What's the big deal?" asked Pan "I mean he just looks like the same sadistic bloodthirsty psychopath that he always was."

"No that's not it, but I think I know what it is. Baby went through such an unnatural way of achieving his Great Ape form, rather than doing what Goku did and transforming in the traditional method, or at least as close as he could get under the circumstances, that it's causing some negative side effects for him."

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Meanwhile, back on the battlefield…

"_**Now then Saiyan, I believe it's my turn!" **_Baby cupped his massive hands at his side, a large amount of Ki building in his palms, a malicious and sadistic gleam in his eyes "_**Try to dodge this if you can! You might be able to save yourself, but your precious Earth is doomed!"**_

'_Is he seriously trying to quote Vegeta now-' _but then Goku suddenly froze for a split second as the realization dawned upon him, the horrifying realization '_Don't tell me, you mean he actually would…'_

"_**From what I'm able to tell, it will only take one more hit at full strength and that precious home planet of yours will be blown to bits, along with everyone on it!"**_

"And what Baby, you mean you're really willing to sink that low, ripping apart the planet you went to the trouble of enslaving just for the sake of taking me out?"

"_**Why don't you stand there and find out! SUPER GALICK GUN!" **_Baby promptly fired forward a massive Super Galick Gun directly at Goku, and by extension, at the Earth floating behind him.

'_Dammit, I can't let him hit the Earth, which means that I can't get out of the way! I've only got one option left!' _with no other options left, Goku was forced to cup his hands at his side and try to prepare a 10x Kamehameha "Believe me when I tell you this Baby, there is no way in hell you've seen the last of me!" but at the last second, he broke off from charging his blast and was forced to raise his arms and try and block the Super Galick Gun a split second before it had actually engulfed him, the force of the explosion sending him crashing into the gorge with a very loud thud.

"_**Now do you see you Saiyan wretch? This is the fate your kind deserves, and now you see why the Tuffles are the superior species! Now to make sure you stay down!" **_laughing in a manner both maniacal and sadistic, Baby cupped his hands and prepared to fire a second Super Galick Gun to follow up on the first one.

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Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

"Dammit!" Piccolo could only swear and let out a growl at the sight of Baby preparing to fire his second blast "It's worse than any of us could've imagined it being, now he's officially lost any and all control over himself."

"What do you mean?" asked Pan "Wasn't he just trying to kill Grandpa before he turned into the giant ape?"

"That's not my point, he's not considering the potential backlash of his actions. If he launches an attack like that at the Earth, then the force of the explosion it causes will end up sending debris and shockwaves smashing into this planet, and it will be destroyed as well, along with everyone on it."

"But if he does that then he'll end up killing himself in the process." Majuub pointed out "Didn't he think about how that might happen?"

"He's not even thinking at all, his hatred for the Saiyans, and for Goku to be more specific, has officially driven away any sense of reason that he had. This is bad, this is really bad."

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**Now that Baby's mind has been poisoned even further beyond salvation by his unnatural transformation into a Great Ape, there is only one emotion that has begun driving all of his actions: the burning hatred for the Saiyans and everything they represent, which drives his relentless desire to kill Goku. However, if Baby's rage carries with it the destruction of the planet Earth, then the Tuffle Planet will inevitably fall with it, and everyone on both planets will perish in fiery explosions. The Earth and the galaxy, and the entire universe as a whole, needs a hero now more than ever. Will Goku and the others will be able to prevail against overwhelming odds, as they have done countless times before, or will destruction be the only destiny that awaits them and the rest of humankind? The struggle against Baby and his forces reaches its climax, next time on Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo's Counterattack!**

**A/N:**

**Now we finally start to get into the final battle of this fic, with Goku, now imbued with the full powers of a Super Saiyan 4 going to town on Baby, who has now undergone his own evolution in order to match Goku's new level of power. Now things are really heating up. Also, let me just apologize for taking as long as I did to get this next chapter out, it's just that I've been trying to work on some of my other stories that were on hiatus for so long, and even create a few new oneshots.**

**So yeah, this chapter was mostly Goku fighting against Baby, and Piccolo and the others didn't get to do very much. To be fair though, Piccolo and Majuub were only somewhat able to hold their own against Baby in his normal state, so I doubt they would be able to do much against Baby's Golden Great Ape form. I'm just trying to be realistic with this story, and in order to do that I need to think every situation through carefully.**

**Just giving you guys a heads up, I can't say for certain, but I believe that this story is going to end with the next chapter, and if not that one, then definitely the one after that. Either way, the time of which I work on this story is coming to an end, and I want to thank you all for your support over the past few months, even after the world started going to hell.**


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